European Commission launches EU Digital COVID Certificate

The European Commission formally signed the legislation to create the EU Digital COVID Certificate to be used for 12 months, beginning on 1 July 2021.

Ambassadors from the 27 EU member states approved an European Commission proposal that people who have been fully vaccinated for 14 days should be able to travel freely from one EU country to another.

Restrictions for other travellers should be based on the degree to which the country they are coming from has COVID-19 infections under control.

The certificate will be attributed to people who have been vaccinated, who received a negative Covid-19 test result or who have had Covid-19 and recovered.

It will be open to EU citizens and their families and legal residents and will be valid in all EU member states, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

For now, 12 countries are already using EU Digital COVID Certificate app. The other countries, including Portugal, will follow on 1 July.

The EU Digital Covid Certificate includes limited information such as the traveller’s name, date of birth and relevant information about the vaccine/test/recovery status. This data remains on the certificate and is not stored or retained by visited countries.

Sources: European Parliament (europarl.europa.eu), Reuters