EU Digital Covid Certificate
Publication Date/Time
2021-10-01T11:00:00+00:00
Country
Europe
A solution to reopen Europe
_In this data story, we look back on the developments that led to the
establishment of the Digital Covid Certificate, and on how sharing of
minimal data allowed us to regain freedom of movement._

HOW DID COVID-19 IMPACT FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT?

Freedom of movement and residence for persons is one of the
cornerstones of European Union citizenship, established by the Treaty
of Maastricht in 1992. Since then, internal borders gradually faded
and free movement of goods, services, and people became part of
everyday life.

Yet, to slow down the spread of coronavirus and protect the health and
well-being of all Europeans, some travel restrictions were necessary.
The European Commission together with Member States, implemented
containment measures, restrictions on non-essential travel, closing of
borders, and/or reinstated internal border controls within the
Schengen area.

In October 2020 the European Council agreed on common criteria and a
common framework on travel measures in response to the COVID-19
pandemic1
[https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2021/06/14/covid-19-council-updates-recommendation-on-free-movement-restrictions/].
EU countries are categorised in four levels of risk: green, orange,
red or dark red, as shown in the figure by the European Centre for
Disease Prevention and Control [https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en] below.
The categories depend on several factors, such as the number of cases
and tests, the vaccination uptake, and the prevalence of virus
variants. The framework helps Member States take decisions based on
the epidemiological situation on a national and regional level.
 
 

_Figure 1. Colour-coded map of combined indications_2
[https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19/situation-updates/weekly-maps-coordinated-restriction-free-movement]

Restricting travel has a serious impact on our day-to-day life and on
the European economy. Tourism for example, is a source of employment
for many Europeans and the total annual value of tourism is estimated
at 787 billion euros3
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Tourism_in_the_EU_-_what_a_normal_summer_season_looks_like_-_before_Covid-19#More_than_1.9_billion_tourism_nights_and_EUR_138_billion_spent].
In a normal summer season (pre-Covid), EU residents made more than 250
million tourism trips to destinations in the EU, during which they
spent nearly 110 billion euros4
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Tourism_in_the_EU_-_what_a_normal_summer_season_looks_like_-_before_Covid-19#More_than_1.9_billion_tourism_nights_and_EUR_138_billion_spent].
This dropped by 52 % as 1.5 billion fewer nights were spent in tourist
accommodations in 2020 compared to 20195
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Tourism_statistics_-_nights_spent_at_tourist_accommodation_establishments].

With vaccination programs in place and testing facilities established
throughout Europe, hope amongst EU citizens to travel again sparked.

HOW CAN WE MAKE FREE MOVEMENT INSIDE THE EU POSSIBLE AGAIN?

In March, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der
Leyen, announced the creation of a system of “Digital Green
Certificates”. The aim of the certificates – now called EU Digital
COVID Certificate – was to reopen the EU6
[https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/ec-confirms-green-certificates-to-be-used-only-for-travel-within-the-eu-for-now/] and
to make free movement again possible for EU citizens who are
vaccinated against COVID-19, received a negative test result, or
recovered.

On the 1st of June, the EU Digital Covid Certificate Gateway was
launched. It serves as a verification tool for the EU COVID-19
certificates in a secure and privacy-friendly way. From the very
start, seven countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany,
Greece, Croatia, and Poland) were connected to the gateway. Gradually
the other EU countries joined.7
[https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/7-countries-to-start-issuing-eu-covid-19-passports-for-travel-today-a-month-ahead-of-the-deadline/]
 
 

_Figure 2. Snapshot of the progress of the implementation of the EU
Digital Covid Certificate on the 1st of July 2021_8
[https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/7-countries-to-start-issuing-eu-covid-19-passports-for-travel-today-a-month-ahead-of-the-deadline/]

The system became operational on the 1st of July, when the “EU
Digital COVID Certificate Regulation”, or EUDCC, entered into force9
[https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/coronavirus-response/timeline-eu-action_en;https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52021PC0130].
From that day, EU citizens and residents were able to have their
Digital COVID Certificates issued. The service is provided by the
national authorities, free of charge and recognised in all 27 EU
Member States, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, San
Marino, Switzerland, and Vatican City10
[https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/eu-gateway-eu-digital-covid-certificate].

In the interest of the citizens’ privacy, the authorities operating
the programme and the software applications used to validate the
certificates make so that the data read from the certificate is not
stored nor retained following verification through the QR code or
through a human check.

Thanks to the Digital Covid Certificate, freedom of movement within
the EU has been re-established.  This example clearly illustrates how
powerful data can be. By collecting and sharing just a limited number
of data, travel is again possible.

 

Discover the power of this data yourself on data.europa
[https://data.europa.eu/nl/news/digital-covid-certificate], where it
is made available to all after anonymisation and aggregation. These
data will provide you with insights as to how many certificates are
exchanged per country. In addition, you can use the data and
open-source code to build new and innovative applications.

Did you use the data to build something new or for research? Tell us
your story!
[https://data.europa.eu/en/impact-studies/tell-us-your-story]

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