Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 28 April 2021 - Brussels

Digital Green Certificate - Union citizens - Digital Green Certificate - third country nationals - The accessibility and affordability of Covid-testing (debate)

  Jytte Guteland (S&D). – Madam President, the vaccine is the way out of this crisis. The main purpose is of course to save lives, but when possible, down the road, they will also be crucial for our society to start opening for the integration between our countries and for free movement to resume.

The EU COVID-19 certificates are not travel documents, they are not passports, they are simply a certificate that facilitates the free movement of our citizens. If you’re not yet vaccinated you can still travel showing your negative test. If you have already had the disease you can travel with the certificate of recovery. And if you haven’t had the chance to get a positive PCR test you can still show your immunity with a positive test for antibodies. This is something we in the S&D Group fought for, and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) also thought it was important. But free movement must apply for all, regardless of the thickness of your wallet. Vaccines are free, certificates are free, and to ensure that no one is discriminated against the COVID test must also be free for the citizens. This point is so important so we have a separate resolution on the affordability of COVID testing.

I am convinced that the proposal on the table will result not only in safer certificates, but also in more fair certificates.