Health pass: the sometimes confusing regulations of our European neighbors

Vaccination certificates, negative test results, pass due or not, wearing a mask compulsory here, but not there … The measures pile up and sometimes contradict each other, creating in our European neighbors (also) a regulatory mess from which sometimes emerges puzzling cases. Small overview of the most unusual.

With our English neighbors, the anti-Covid pass is mandatory for access to nightclubs or pubs “with dance space”. But the measure only applies from 1 a.m.: you can therefore get there without any problem before the fateful hour … and stay there afterwards, without really risking being checked by the bouncers at the same time. the dance floor.

“Pig slaughter” is a Czech tradition, in which butchers come to supply people with meat on the occasion of the end of the year feasts. The health pass is now required as a public event, and in the same way, the number of participants is very seriously limited to 1000 … while this meeting rarely exceeds the family circle.

Theoretically, attending services in Greek churches requires having a vaccination certificate or a negative test. But the Greek Orthodox Church, very cautious about vaccines, has made it clear that it will not be controlling anyone.

Getting to the petrol pump in Lithuania requires a health pass. People who do not have one can still refuel, however, if the gas station allows payment by card outside. Without a certificate, one also cannot access a Lithuanian shopping center, gymnasium or spa. In a restaurant, it’s more subtle, but for the same result: you can’t enter without a certificate, but you can take meals or even use seats outside. Little chance, however, that this last point of regulation is exploited: it has been down to -10 ° in recent days in Vilnius.

Latvian elected officials, local or national, are temporarily suspended from their functions if they are unable to produce a vaccination certificate. This measure has already been applied nineteen times for recalcitrant municipal councilors. Additional refinement of the sanction: their seats are allocated to their direct rivals in the ballot which brought them to power. At the national level, the sanction applied in particular to MP Julija Stepanenko, co-founder of the party Latvia first.