More than half of the EU member states have started issuing the "EU COVID Digital Certificate" for travel, a measure set by EU states to re-establish travel between European countries, more than a year after the start of travel bans and restrictions..
According to the European Commission, the following EU countries are effectively connected to the EUDCC gateway and issue and / or verify at least one certificate: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Iceland (non-EU Schengen country). Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Croatia and Poland they have started issuing the first certificates since 1 June, and Belgium and Portugal are the latest EU countries to launch the certificate.
The rest of the Member States are technically ready to connect to the EUDCC gate and will start issuing the first passports for their citizens in the coming days. France has already announced that it is will update the COVID-19 vaccination certificate on June 22 to be synced with "EU COVID digital certificate".
15 EU Member States already use the "EU COVID Digital Certificate". In addition, Iceland uses the certificate issued by the European Union.
Also, Italy has announced that it will start accepting and issuing certificates from 15 JuneHowever, according to the EU Commission, this has not yet happened. The data show that the interest of Europeans to obtain certificates is very high. For example, five million digital travel passports have been issued in Germany within two weeks.
On the other hand, Hungary, Finland and Malta are the three EU members lagging behind with the implementation of the document, as all three countries are still in the testing phase to technically prepare for connection to the EUDCC gateaway. Iceland is the only non-EU Schengen country to start issuing the document to its citizens. The other three - Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Norway - they have all completed the testing phase and are ready to connect to the gateaway.
The legislative process for the EU passport was completed on 14 June, when the presidents of the three main EU institutions signed the Regulation at a formal signing ceremony, two months after EU members began drafting the document.