Britain could be included in EU vaccination passport

EUROPEAN UNION plans for a Covid-19 vaccine passport could be opened up to British holidaymakers and other noneu tourists, Brussels said yesterday.

Ursula von der Leyen said the Euwide “Digital Green Pass” would be proposed this month, and that it could be a first step towards a passport enabling travel from outside the bloc.

“The Digital Green Pass should facilitate Europeans’ lives. The aim is to gradually enable them to move safely in the EU or abroad – for work or tourism,” the European Commission president said. The chief spokesman for the European Commission said the process would be done “step by step”.

“We work on a European solution now, this is where we start and anything else would need to come after,” he said. “In collaboration with the World Health Organisation, there should be a way to scale this up globally.”

Matthew Hancock, the Health Secretary, said that the UK was talking to the EU about vaccine passports.

“We are working with our international partners on the need for certification in terms of having had a vaccine to be able to travel to another country,” he said. But Professor Jonathan Van-tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, said there is still “great uncertainty” over the prospects for foreign holidays this summer. The Green Pass will include information such as whether the carrier has ever had coronavirus, been tested or vaccinated. The legislation will be put forward on March 17.

Reyes Maroto, the Spanish tourism minister, said that things must move faster to save the summer.

“It is important to have the tools ready to start mobility and make Europe a safe travel destination again as soon as the virus incidence data allows,” Ms Maroto said at a meeting of EU tourism ministers in Lisbon.

Pedro Siza Vieira, Portugal’s economy minister, said EU member states needed to tell the commission the importance of the tourism sector. Greece was expected to renew its calls for a vaccine passport after it was reported the country had held bilateral talks with the UK and Israel over travel.

The EU has a ban on non-essential travel into the bloc but, with borders a national rather than continental power, there is little to stop Athens going it alone. Paris and Berlin are wary of introducing the passports before more people in the EU are vaccinated.

Mrs Von der Leyen has said she is “confident” that the EU will hit its target of vaccinating 70 per cent of the adult population by the end of the summer.