Debate: Digital Green Certificate - Union citizens - Digital Green Certificate - third country nationals - The accessibility and affordability of Covid-testing
Date: WEDNESDAY, 28 APRIL 2021
Speaker: Ana Paula Zacarias
Language: EN

The Council has welcomed the proposals on the Digital Green Certificate put forward by the Commission, which aims at facilitating freedom of movement within the EU. We also underline the flexibility that the proposed framework guarantees, and the Presidency certainly hopes that the deployment of the Digital Green Certificate will give a positive boost to the social and economic recovery of our societies.  At the same time we have to be cautious and manage citizens’ expectations in light of the fast-changing evolution of the epidemiological situation in Europe and across the world, in particular as regards tackling variants of concern, as we can unfortunately see at this moment. The Council agreement on the negotiating mandate was unanimously supported by the Member States, and our proposal already addresses some of the concerns of the Parliament, including a sunset clause for the regulation. We also remain open to further discussions on fundamental issues of protection of personal data, taking into account the joint opinion of the European Data Protection Board and the European Data Protection Supervisor.  In addition, at the end of last week, Member States reached an agreement on guidelines describing the main technical specifications for the implementation of the Digital Green Certificate. This is a crucial step for the establishment of the necessary infrastructure, both in the EU and at national level, and I would like to thank the Commission for all the work done at this level.  Honourable Members, as you know the question of accessibility and affordability of the COVID-19 tests is not covered by the Council mandate, nor is any question related to the fees. Furthermore, the Commission did not intend to regulate this issue on its proposal. However, the Council and the Member States are quite mindful of the importance of eliminating or reducing the costs incurred by their citizens and facilitating testing within the EU competence as provided by the treaty. Allow me a couple of points on this matter.  First, the Council agreed in this mandate that the certificates themselves should be issued free of charge. Second, following a Council amendment in December 2020 to the Directive on the common system of value added tax, Member States will be able to apply either reduced or zero rates to testing kits, which was previously not possible.  Third, regarding testing, costs can also be reduced through joint procurement or EU funding. Member States are receiving over 20 million rapid antigen tests through the emergency support instrument, while a joint procurement with 32 countries for over half a billion rapid tests was launched in November 2020. Finally, although testing strategies are the competence of Member States, in January the Council adopted a recommendation setting out a common framework for the use of rapid antigen tests and the mutual recognition of COVID-19 test results across the EU. Furthermore, the Health Security Committee agreed to a common list of COVID-19 rapid antigen tests and a common standardised set of data for test result certificates.  I’m sure these efforts will continue during the forthcoming negotiations with the European Parliament because we have the same aim – to facilitate the lives of our citizens at this very difficult time so that families can be reunited and so that students and tourists and business people can travel, finally regaining a sense of normality and putting our economy on the move.