The recommendation adopted by the Ministers of European Affairs is not binding, each State remaining free to comply with it or not.
Le Monde with AFP
Foreign Ministers of the Twenty-Seven Member States of the European Union (EU) agreed, Tuesday, January 25, to better coordinate the rules applicable to travel within the EU and not to impose restrictions Holders of a European health certificate, as some countries have done it after the emergence of Omicron.
Several countries, including Italy, require travelers, even vaccinated or cuvid-19 cure, have negative tests to enter their territory. “Travelers in possession of a valid EU digital COVID certificate should not be subject to additional restrictions on free movement”, estimates the EU Council in a communiqué
At a meeting in Brussels, the Ministers of European Affairs have adopted a new recommendation – an act not legally binding – to coordinate their measures in terms of free movement.
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 the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (or ECDC, for European Center for Disease Prevention and Control) and the deployment of the EU digital COVID certificate (attesting from a vaccine, a test or recovery after coronavirus infection of less than six months).
A “Recommendation” applicable from 1 er February
The European Commission has called on the Member States to “apply immediately the approved rules”. “Omicron has now been spread throughout Europe and it is time to consider the abandonment of additional measures than a number of Member States have introduced for travel in recent weeks, making travel more difficult and less foreseeable throughout the EU, said European Commissioners to Health, Stella Kyriakides, and Justice, Didier Reynders, in a statement.
“This is a recommendation, so I can not guarantee that this will lead to that all countries are in this common framework, but (…) all States have reported their intention to comply with it”, explained the Secretary of State for French European Affairs, Clément Beaune, whose country exercises the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.
“I think it’s important that we have strict rules – because the sanitary pass that circulates in Europe is strict and protective, it must be checked systematically during trips – but that we Do not go beyond these measures not to fragment applicable rules in Europe, “he added.
This recommendation will come into force on the 1 February, as well as the measurement fixing at nine months (270 days) the period of validity of vaccination certificates, lack of a recall dose, For trips in the union.