The EU Digital COVID Certificate was approved on June 8th and it will come into force on July 1st. The purpose of the certificate is to allow those vaccinated against covid-19, recovered from the disease or with a negative result test, to circulate freely by Europe. This initiative covers all EU Member States.

The proposal was decided by vote in the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, and the idea is that the certificate can be carried in digital or paper format, and that citizens can obtain it, free of charge, through health authorities or through an online health portal. The EU Digital Covid Certificate will have a QR Code incorporated which will allow other contries to access essential information related to your permition to travel around Europe freely and a signature that guarantees its Authenticity.

The main goal of the EU Digital Covid Certificate is to avoid people from having to quarantine when visiting other European countries. In order to stimulate tourism, all the Member States have agreed on the conditions and firmly believe that the certificate will be of great help. Even though that the purpose of the certificate is to prevent people from quarantine, all countries may impose any restrictions necessary if the epedimiological situations gets significantly worse. In this case, they should just communicate with the EU Member Stats about the change of measures.

European Commission also clarifies, on its official website, that “Member States will have to accept vaccination certificates for vaccines that have obtained an EU marketing authorization” and “they may decide to extend this possibility also to travelers who have received another vaccine”. Member States are also free to “decide whether to accept a vaccination certificate after a dose or after completion of the vaccination cycle”.

It is very important for the tourism sector to guarantee the necessary mobility of tourists among European Union tourists. The tourism sector represents about 10% of the European Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 14% of Portugal’s GDP (2019 data).