Angela Merkel: Vaccination certificates are being introduced; EU leaders unanimous

"Everyone agreed that we need a digital vaccination certificate," Angela Merkel said at a press conference after the EU summit, which is being held online, Reuters reports.
The German Chancellor added that the European Commission will need about three months to develop a technical basis for such documents.
The heads of state and government of the European Union last spoke four weeks ago. The vaccination strategy, suppression of virus mutations, travel restrictions and vaccination confirmations were on the agenda. At today's video conference, the topics are, as announced - exactly the same.

Ursula von der Leyen: At least 3 months to establish a certification system

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, says that it will be up to the member states to make decisions on "what can be done with certificates", and that at the EU level, they will be used for the functioning of the common market.
Von der Leyen stated that it will take at least three months to establish an interoperable system of vaccination certificates in the EU. "The system will support information about a person's vaccination, negative PCR test, or immunity. We need fast implementation if we want these certificates to be functional before the summer", Von der Leyen concluded.
The EU emphasizes that there are still a lot of open both "political and scientific" issues when it comes to vaccination certificates, i.e. what they will be used for or whether vaccination means the cessation of transmission of the infection.
"We have encouraging data from Israel where Pfizer vaccines have been shown to stop the transmission of infection after revaccination," says Von der Leyen.
She adds that the EU has so far received 50 million doses of...

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