Greece Among 7 Countries to Launch EU Digital Covid Certificate

Photo source: @European Commission

The EU Digital Covid Certificate has gone live in seven EU member states, including Greece, the European Commission announced on Tuesday.

This means that Greece, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Croatia and Poland have already connected to the EU gateway and started issuing the first digital Covid certificates.

“Seven member states is a good start. I encourage others to follow as soon as possible. The timely preparation will allow the full system to be up and running by 1 July – when the proposal enters into application and the EU will be on time to open up again this summer,” Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said.

The EU Digital Covid Certificate was proposed by the Commission to resume safe traveling this summer. It will be free of charge, secure and accessible to all.

Available in digital format or on paper, it will be a proof that a person has been vaccinated against Covid-19, tested negative, or recovered from an infection.

Next steps

The technical backbone of the EU system went live after the political agreement between the European Parliament and the Council on the regulation governing the certificate on 20 May.

The political agreement has to be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council. It will enter into application on 1 July, with a phasing-in period of six weeks for the issuance of certificates for those member states that need additional time. In parallel, the Commission will continue to provide technical and financial support to member states to on-board the gateway.

“The EU Digital Covid Certificate shows the value added of effective e-health solutions for our citizens. It is important that during the coming weeks, all member states fully finalize their national systems to issue, store and verify certificates, so the system is functioning in time for the holiday season,” Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said.