ARCHIVED - Spain urges EU to speed-up European Covid passport to kickstart tourism
The EU said on Monday that it would formally present its proposals on March 17
Spain has urged the European Commission to speed up the process for creating a European vaccination passport, which the authorities expect to be a useful and effective tool to allow travel to resume safely.
Spanish Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto called, during a meeting with her EU counterparts, for the EC to include an ambitious tourism recovery programme in the new budgets to ensure that Europe maintains its place as a benchmark for tourism at a global level.
The Spanish government, which has expressed its open support for the Covid passport scheme, has already created an inter-ministerial commission to work on a Covid-19 vaccine passport, the Minister of Economy Nadia Calviño reported.
On Monday European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said that on March 17 the Commission would formally present its proposals for what she called “a Digital Green Pass” to EU member states, the aim being to ensure that Europeans could travel with the greatest degree of freedom possible, during the summer holiday period.
She stated that the “aim is to provide: Proof that a person has been vaccinated; Results of tests for those who hadn´t yet been offered a vaccine ; Info on COVID19 recovery (ie for those who have had Covid and recovered) which will respect data protection, security and privacy.”