European Union member states will aim to agree on digital vaccination certificates to ease travel in the bloc by June 21st, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has said.
“The timetable now would be that we all hope that by the 21st of June… there is an agreement,” Mr Rutte said at a meeting of EU leaders, as reported by the Irish Times.
Rutte later said: “Between now and 21st of June some big decisions need to be taken" and that "for the Netherlands, we would do that as quickly as possible after 21st of June."
While some member states will begin using the system to ease restrictions surrounding non-essential travel, other countries may wait due to concerns about discrimination and the risk of spreading vaccine-resistant variants.
Speaking at Cork this afternoon, the Taoiseach confirmed that Ireland will join the EU's digital green certificate system, opening up the prospect of foreign travel by the end of the summer.
Speaking as he received his vaccine jab, Micheàl Martin said : "Europe is pressing ahead with it in terms of the technology side of it.
"There will be more work to be done in terms of the application of these passports, but we want a European-wide, interoperable portal where people can register the fact that they have been vaccinated, that they had a negative PCR test or they have recovered from Covid. So, I think, that is the next stage.
"That is something Ireland is going to participate in - we are going to participate in that European-wide framework. We will work through this."
This development means that Irish citizens could travel abroad by the end of summer.
However, the prospects of international travel are dependent on the success of the vaccination programme and case numbers.
Martin adds: "Certainly, by the latter part of the summer, possibilities may open up, but we have got to track the virus, keep on top of it and keep the pressure on it.
"This has been a balancing act so far. Let's not forget we are still at 400+ cases a day and that is something we will always keep an eye on.," he added.
The Fianna Fàil leader said that EU member states have a working timeframe to make the EU digital green passport operational but it's not definitive yet - a period of June to the start of August has been mentioned.
While some aspects of the new system are still being discussed, it will allow people to receive a 'green digital certificate' showing whether they have been vaccinated, tested negative, or recently recovered from the virus.
The Irish Times also reports that the EU is hopeful to have a green certificate system in place for the Schengen area (26 countries on mainland Europe and Iceland) by late June.
The 26 countries in the Schengen zone are; Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland .
