Stakeholders’ Position on Digital Green Certificate Trilogues & Council Recommendation on Travel Coordination

In its latest Communication updating the New Industrial Strategy (05.05.2021), the European Commission recognised that tourism was “hardest hit” by the COVID-19 crisis and that mobility “would face a slower and more uneven recovery”. It is time to support the travel and tourism ecosystem, which is vital for the broader restart of the European economy.

As travel and tourism associations, we welcome the proposal on a digital green certificate (DGC) to restore EU freedom of movement. We also see it as a useful tool to facilitate international mobility for leisure and other purposes, whilst containing the spread of COVID-19.

However, we believe that beyond ensuring that the certificate is genuine and valid, the systems in place should allow checks against the travel requirements at destination. This would facilitate the full digital integration of the certificates, therefore reducing the average time needed to check a passenger’s documentation at the gate/terminal/station (currently up to 2 min in aviation). Failure to do so would result in significant capacity issues, compromising the efficient flow of passengers – at airports in particular – and potentially resulting in additional health safety risk. Providing this information would also help passengers navigate the requirements ahead of their journey.

In this context, the undersigned travel and tourism stakeholders are urging the Council, Parliament and Commission to reach a swift agreement in trilogues to ensure the adoption of the legislative framework before the end of June.

See the joint industry position below.