(ANSA) - BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 25 - "We are confident of being able to reach our goal at the end of the summer of vaccinating 70% of the adult European population, it is 255 million EU citizens, and if we look at the forecast data this is a goal that we are sure of to be able to achieve ".
This was stated by the president of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the end of the EU summit by videoconference, during which a general agreement was found on the so-called 'vaccine passport'.
"We need at least three months for the technical development of a European interoperable system" for vaccine passports ", explained in this regard. The agreement concerns the use of" a set of minimum data "in the passport" which could be useful for providing information on alleged immunity "of citizens. Confidential information, concerning vaccination, test negativity and possible development of antibodies, must be" relevant at a cross-border level ", he added. The president of the EU Commission insisted on the importance of" developing a European approach "to the vaccine passport system." If not very much, the bilateral initiatives "of the Member States" will create even more difficulties "and even large companies such as" Google and Apple are ready to offer solutions to the WHO ", but it is necessary to share" confidential information, so we want to say clearly that we offer a European solution ". Brussels will continue to dialogue with governments to" p
redesign in this direction by March ", added the EU leader, stressing that" the debate must take into account the risk of discrimination "and, at the same time, the fact that" for many EU countries tourism is extremely important from an economic and social point of view " .
(HANDLE).