More than 420 million EU Digital Certificates for travel have been issued since the first EU countries started issuing the document in June, the EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, has announced.
While on August 27, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported that 350 million COVID Digital certificates had been issued to the residents of the EU countries by that date, the Commissioner has implied that 70 million more certificates have been issued in the last less than 20 days.
The Commissioner revealed the number of certificates for travel issued by the Member States to those vaccinated, those who have recovered from the Coronavirus in the past 180 days, as well as to those who test negative for COVID-19 while commenting on the agreements reached with several third countries on reciprocal recognition of the documents.
“Since June, more than 420 million EU certificates have been issued. I, therefore, welcome that more and more countries outside the EU are joining our successful system. A total number of 42 countries – 27 EU Member States and 15 non-EU countries – are now taking part in the EU Digital COVID Certificate system, confirming the EU certificate as an international standard,” the Commissioners said.
The 42 countries that the Commissioner mentions are as follows:
- 27 European Union Member States
- Albania
- Andorra
- Iceland
- Israel
- Liechtenstein
- Monaco
- Morocco
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Panama
- San Marino
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- Vatican City
The Faroe Islands, which is a self-governing archipelago, part of the Kingdom of Denmark, has also connected to the EU gateway for the issuance of COVID-19 certificates.
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The EU Digital Certificate for travel has been created by the EU as a tool that would help facilitate travelling between the Member States by enabling those holding such a document to travel restriction-free or with minimal restrictions.
The idea first surfaced in mid-March this year, and by June 1, seven EU countries had already started to issue or verify at least one document of this kind. The document is issued to those vaccinated against COVID-19, those who have recovered from COVID-19 within the last 180 days before obtaining the document, as well as to those who test negative for a virus.
The Member States are obliged to accept all vaccine passports of those vaccinated with the vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) – which are Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen and AstraZeneca. However, they are also advised to accept the passports issued to travellers vaccinated with other vaccines as Sputnik, Sinopharm and Sinovac, amongst others.