Until now, the countries of Europe applied very different constraints to tourists vaccinated or in possession of a certificate of recovery. This could change from February 1.
Italy requires for all travellers, even for those vaccinated and those with a certificate of recovery, a PCR test, as does Portugal. Neighboring Spain, on the other hand, only requires proof of a vaccine – just like Madeira and the Azores… Complicated, did you say complicated? This may well improve in the near future. The Twenty-Seven agreed on Tuesday to better coordinate the rules applicable to travel within the European Union and not to impose restrictions on holders of a European health certificate, as some countries have faced with the emergence of Omicron.
“Travelers in possession of a valid EU digital COVID certificate should not be subject to additional restrictions on free movement“, indicates the Council of the EU in a press release. At a meeting in Brussels, EU affairs ministers adopted a new recommendation – a non-legally binding act – to coordinate their free movement measures. This update of the applicable rules responds to the significant increase in vaccination coverage (nearly 70% of the European population is fully vaccinated, according to health agency ECDC) and the deployment of the EU’s digital Covid certificate ( attesting to a vaccine, a test or recovery after infection with Covid-19 for less than six months).
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Omicron has now spread across Europe and it’s time to consider dropping the extra measures
European Commissioners for Health Stella Kyriakides and Justice Didier Reynders
The European Commission has called on Member States to “implement agreed rules without delay“. “Omicron has now spread across Europe and it is time to consider abandoning the additional measures that a number of states have introduced for travel in recent weeks, making travel more difficult and less predictable in all EUsaid European Commissioners for Health Stella Kyriakides and Justice Didier Reynders in a statement.
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“It’s a recommendation, so I can’t guarantee that it will result in all countries coming under this common framework but (…) all States have signaled their intention to comply with it“, told AFP the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. “I think it’s important that we have strict rules – because the health pass which allows you to travel in Europe is strict and protective, it must be systematically checked when traveling -, but that we are not going beyond these measures so as not to fragment the rules applicable in Europe“, he added. This recommendation will enter into force on February 1, as will the measure setting the period of validity of vaccination certificates at nine months (270 days), in the absence of a booster dose, for travel within the Union.
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