BRUSSELS: EU leaders met virtually on Thursday under pressure to speed up Europe’s coronavirus vaccine rollout and facing demands from some capitals for a continent-wide vaccine passport.
Their video summit comes a year into the Covid-19 crisis, as most of the 27-nation EU is experiencing a second wave of cases — or a third wave for some — that stubbornly won’t diminish. Brussels has warned six governments about unilateral border restrictions, while tourist-dependent countries are piling on pressure to lift travel barriers in time for summer vacations.
Ahead of the video conference, Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov called for “green passports” to be issued that contain vaccine and test results.
Kurz tweeted “we... want an EU-wide Green Passport, with which people can travel freely, do business without restrictions and go on holiday, as well as finally enjoy gastronomy, culture, events and other things again”.
But several EU officials and diplomats warn that, while they back a verifiable vaccination record, it is too early to look at using them to permit easier travel.
They said it was still unknown if vaccinated people can infect others, and worried that it could open a travel schism between a minority of vaccinated haves and a majority of unvaccinated have-nots.
Greece, however, has indicated it is ready to move faster than its EU peers. It has already struck a bilateral travel agreement with Israel, the world’s vaccination champion. And it is reportedly in similar talks with former EU member Britain, its second-biggest tourist market, which is contemplating lifting a ban on foreign leisure travel as early as mid-May. One senior EU diplomat acknowledged that all European Union countries were eager to reopen travel for the June-to-September tourist season, but said “we have to move this forward together”.
An EU official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, was blunter, saying the EU wants to avoid “a new death season”.
On top of examining options for developing a common certificate strategy, the EU leaders will look at how to speed the continent’s sluggish vaccines rollout.
The European Commission’s vaccine procurement strategy in the first quarter was too dependent on doses from British-Swedish giant AstraZeneca, which drastically under-delivered. — AFP
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