While Europe is at the foot of the seventh wave of Covid-19, driven by the spread of the BA.4 and BA.5 variants, which came straight from South Africa, the European Union looked into the 23 June in the evening on the extension of the digital health pass.
Adopted on June 14, 2021, the latter expired on June 30, 2022. With 453 votes for, out of 591, the text was adopted, thus authorizing European states to use a health pass until October 31, 2022.
Read alsoCovid-19: a European health pass with variable geometry
Gathered in plenary assembly with the program of many subjects such as the place of Ukraine in the EU, the carbon tax, the MEPs also expressed themselves mainly in favor of the renewal of the health pass.
“
It would therefore be appropriate, as a first step, to limit the first extension to four months, until October 31, 2022
,” the bill reads.
The Spanish rapporteur, José Ramón Bauzá Díaz, member of the Ciudadanos party, adds that "it
will be appropriate, in a second stage, to allow the Commission to extend the application of this regulation by four months, i.e. until 28 February 2023
”, specifying however that “
any extension of the Covid certificate system and any restriction on the free movement of people should be lifted as soon as the epidemiological situation allows it
”.
LFI voted "for", RN "against", Manon Aubry was wrong
What did the French deputies sitting in the European Parliament vote for?
Only elected RNs as well as François-Xavier Bellamy, president of the LR group, opposed the extension of the health pass.
“
The European Parliament is extending the health pass by one year, which the States can reactivate at will,
writes the latter on Twitter.
Our democracies so quickly become accustomed to transgressing their own principles, even when nothing justifies it.
The state of emergency becomes the norm, and freedom the exception…
”
The former candidate for the 2017 legislative elections regrets the lack of debate around this law which he considers draconian.
It should have “
at least sparked a broad public discussion, so that the authorities who want to keep this tool explain how it seems proportionate to them
”.
Read alsoFrançois-Xavier Bellamy: "
We must break with past inconsistencies
"
The National Rally massively opposed the project, under the banner of the Identity and Democracy Group (GID), raising the number of votes against to 119.
However, among the declared opponents of the health pass, voices were missing: those of the LFI deputies.
Of the six in the European Parliament, only two voted against - Anne-Sophie Pelletier and Emmanuel Maurel.
Manuel Bompard and Younous Omarjee did not speak.
As for Leïla Chaibi and Manon Aubry, both voted "
yes
" by "
technical error
"... "
Following an error during a vote today in Parliament, I immediately corrected my vote to affirm my opposition to the extension of the European covid pass
, ”said the first on Twitter.
Same clumsiness for Manon Aubry who also “
corrected
” her vote afterwards.
A practice which, if it is provided for by the rules of the European Parliament, is however purely symbolic.
“Any request for correction communicated by a deputy is recorded in the list of 'results of roll-call votes' printed and published in electronic format on the plenary web page,
adds the regulatory text
.
But the result of the vote is in no way modified
”.
A great saving attempt on the part of the LFI deputies which therefore had no real effect...
At the same time, in France, the law authorizing the establishment of a health pass, extended for the first time last January, is fast approaching.
If the government wishes to keep it, it will have to modify the law before July 31 and then submit it to a... fractured Assembly.
The positions of the RN and LFI deputies will be particularly watched.