EU Digital COVID Certificate Was Effective but the Impact of Other Tools Was Modest, Report Finds
A recent report from the European Court of Auditors has concluded that the EU Digital COVID Certificate has worked in facilitating travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the other tools were not as effective.
According to the European Court of Auditors, the Digital COVID certificate helped the EU countries to coordinate their travel restrictions with one another and facilitate travel while the other EU tools did not have a significant impact, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Since other tools proved to not be as effective as the EU COVID Digital Certificate, the auditors have called on the EU authorities to be better prepared so that they are able to face effectively any emergencies that may occur in the future.
“The EU Commission moved fast to propose suitable technological solutions, the auditors found. But EU countries’ use of these tools varied significantly, so their impact in terms of facilitating travel was uneven. The auditors call on the EU to prepare itself better so that it can face potential future emergencies more successfully,” the statement of the European Court of Auditors reads.
While the auditors applauded the EU countries for taking a pragmatic approach to developing necessary tools within a short period of time, they said that the passenger locator forms were developed too late.
In addition, it was noted that the EU Commission was not able to overcome several reservations of the Member States using the tools due to legal concerns, including here data protection, and also because their developed their national tools.
“It was crucial that all EU countries adopt common tools to coordinate free movement restrictions and facilitate travel despite the unprecedented situation we were faced with. Not all EU tools were taken up by Member States, and the success of the EU Digital COVID Certificate was not reflected in other tools,” the ECA member responsible for the audit Baudilio Tomé Muguruza said.
According to the European Court of Auditors, only four EU Member States used the EU digital passenger locator form and the same revealed that of around 27 million forms issued by February 2022, more than nine in ten were issued y a single EU country – Italy.
Moreover, the Court of Auditors said that the exchange platform was barely used and pointed out that the uptake of contract-tracing applications varied greatly.
As for the EU Digital COVID Certificate, data show that by the end of March 2022, over 1.7 billion certificates had been issued. For this reason, it was concluded that only the COVID Certificate helped to coordinate travel restrictions and facilitate movement during the Coronavirus pandemic.
