Correspondent in Brussels
The pandemic is picking up again on the continent.
Member States of the EU are taking measures in disarray, in particular on the administration of booster doses.
And the risks are increasing that people traveling across Europe will find themselves stranded at a border despite having a valid health pass in their country.
It is to avoid this catastrophic scenario that the European Commission presented Thursday a recommendation to Member States on the validity period of health passes for European travelers.
Read alsoCovid-19: why is there a fifth wave when we are overwhelmingly vaccinated?
Concretely, they would be valid for nine months from the injection of the first dose.
Two months more than in France therefore since the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, announced Thursday that he was giving adults seven months to receive the booster after the injection of the first dose.
If at the end of this nine-month period, the European traveler has not received their booster dose, then their pass will no longer work.
And, if checked at an internal EU border, it would probably be impossible for him to cross it, except to present a test, to demonstrate that he is cured of the Covid or to accept a quarantine.
Additional three-month period
It is now up to the Member States to consider this recommendation. The Commission wishes to see it applied from January 10, 2022. "
It will be crucial to agree on this proposal for the coming months and for the protection of the free and safe movement of citizens
", underlined the European Commissioner, Didier Reynders. With this recommendation, Brussels' objective is also to encourage EU countries to speed up recall campaigns. "
This additional period of 3 months
(which is in addition to the period of six months recommended between the first two doses, Editor's note)
should allow them to organize themselves
", explained Didier Reynders.
Read alsoFifth wave of Covid-19: what to do when you are "in contact"?
The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, also launched a new call for vaccination on Thursday, while the health situation is deteriorating sharply in Europe.
“
We are facing a new wave of infections, and we need to step up this vaccination effort.
The good news is that we have enough vaccine doses for this.
By the end of the week, Europe will have delivered one billion doses to member states
, "she said on Thursday, recalling that"
a quarter of adults in the European Union are still not fully vaccinated
".
The other recommendation presented by the Commission concerns travel from third countries to the EU. Brussels, which wishes to take into account the rise of vaccination in the world, will no longer rely on the epidemiological situation in third countries to accept or refuse non-essential travel but on the situation of travelers. From March 2022, "
all vaccinated people will be able to travel to the EU
», Said Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson.
This will apply to those who have received the vaccines receiving the green light from the European Medicines Agency but also those validated by the World Health Organization, in particular the Chinese vaccines Sinopharm and Sinovac.
In the latter case, however, travelers must present a negative PCR test in addition to their vaccination certificate.
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