EU launches 9-month binding validity for COVID-19 vaccines

By Francesco Guarasco

(Reuters) – The European Commission on Tuesday approved rules for the European Union’s COVID-19 certification to meet its first vaccination schedule and travel for nine months.

The proposal comes with several EU states imposing additional requirements on passengers with the aim of reducing the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders told Reuters that the EU Commission was against additional conditions and was evaluating the measures.

The new rules will be binding on 27 EU states from 1 February. A qualified majority of EU governments or a simple majority of members of the European Parliament could block the rule, but officials said there is enough support.

The rule replaces the non-binding recommendation presented by the EU Commission in November.

When the rule comes into force, EU states will be obliged to allow fully vaccinated passengers to enter their territory with a valid ticket. However, as an exception justified by a worse situation, they may impose even more requirements, such as negative tests or quarantines, if they are proportionate.

Seven EU states require fully integrated travelers from other EU countries to show a negative COVID-19 test on arrival, some of which are detrimental to the credibility of the EU crossing.

The states are Italy, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Latvia, Cyprus and Austria.

“We prefer to use only a free movement certificate in Europe without additional measures,” Reynders said.

He noted that the additional requirements could be justified by concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant, but that governments had to prove that they were proportionate and necessary.

The commission was still evaluating the measures, Reynders said, adding that the procedures for violating time-limited restrictions make little sense.

National measures are mostly limited to the Christmas period, although Italy extends until the end of January.

The new rules apply only to international travel.

Governments may have a different duration of the COVID-19 pass to access events or internal activities in their territories.

Following a booster shot, the validity of the COVID-19 passage will be extended beyond the established limits, as there is currently insufficient information on the duration of booster protection, an EU official said.

The first vaccination schedule for COVID-19 is currently completed in the EU with two vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca (NASDAQ 🙂 and two other vaccines. Modern (NASDAQ :), or Johnson & Johnson (NYSE 🙂 a single vaccine jab.