The EU Digital COVID Certificate aims to facilitate safe free movement inside the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic.The certificate should be available in either digital or paper format. It attests that a person has been vaccinated against coronavirus or has a recent negative test result or has recovered from the infection.

A common EU framework is allowing member states to issue certificates that will then be accepted in other EU countries. The EU Digital Covid Certificate regulation should be in place for 12 months. The certificate should not be a precondition to exercise the right to free movement and is not considered a travel document.

Member states should not impose additional travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as quarantine, self-isolation or testing, “unless they are necessary and proportionate to safeguard public health”. Member states must accept vaccination certificates issued in other member states for persons inoculated with a vaccine authorised for use in the EU by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

It is up to the member states to decide whether they also accept vaccination certificates that have been authorised by other Member States following national authorisation procedures or for vaccines listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for emergency use. The Regulation entered into force on 1 July 2021.

Parliament and EU member states’ negotiators have agreed to keep the EU Digital COVID Certificate framework in place for another year, until June 2023

EP Plenary session - Meeting the Global Covid 19 challenge: effects of waiver of the WTO TRIPS agreement on Covid-19 vaccines, treatment, equipment and manufacturing capacity in developing countries