The EPP Group welcomes the proposal by the European Commission, the so-called 'Digital Green Certificate', to prepare for safer and easier freedom of movement in Europe. "We all want our

freedom of movement back in Europe. We can make this possible by putting in place a vaccination certificate. The European Parliament should adopt this proposal as a matter of urgency to be prepared for the summer. We have already lost too much time. We expect a strong message of support for the proposal from the European Council next week", said Manfred Weber MEP, EPP Group Chairman, and Jeroen Lenaers MEP, the EPP Group's Spokesman on Civil Liberties.

Weber and Lenaers made their statement today, ahead of the European Commission's presentation of the new EU law. The certificate, serving as proof that a traveller has been vaccinated against COVID-19, has tested negative or has developed immunity, is intended to facilitate travel across Europe. "A digital certificate allowing people to regain their mobility in Europe would be a major step forward to give perspective to the tourism sector but also for citizens in border regions who live and work in different countries. The EU has to prevent making the same mistakes it made at the start of the pandemic, to make sure we have a united approach, instead of 27 different ones. We need to protect the integrity of the Schengen area", said Lenaers.

For Manfred Weber, the certificate should be exclusively linked to vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). “Europe is open to any vaccine that gets the approval from our medicines agency. We need all the vaccines that we can get to speed up our vaccination rollout, under one condition: that they are EMA-approved. Health and safety concerns cannot be ignored in a political bargain over access to the freedom of movement in Europe.”