Greece pressures EU for vaccine passport

Greek officials have begun to press the EU on introducing a vaccine passport to allow people to show they've been vaccinated before the summer tourism wave begins.

This could become essential in reopening travel, particularly for countries such as Greece which rely heavily on tourism waves for parts of their economies.

Read more: Digital Covid vaccine passport enters development

The term "vaccine passport" simply refers to a way of individuals proving they have been vaccinated against coronavirus to allow them free travel.

Greece's tourism minister has called on EU leaders to act faster in introducing a passport so that travel and leisure tourism can resume.

Tourism makes up around one-fifth of Greece's economy.

Harry Theocharis told the FT: “Looking at the reaction of some countries to vaccination certificate proposals, I feel there’s a lot of short-sightedness. There’s more to be done now to prepare ourselves."

He added certain member states are unwilling to plan too far ahead and are only focused on the immediate few months when planning their pandemic recoveries.

“We need to move more quickly," he added.

Athens has been particularly aggressive in its campaigns for a vaccine passport, following a 4% GDP slump for the country last year, despite a partial reopening of its travel sector.

Theocharis added that plans had to be agreed on in advance, which would allow people to feel more secure in pre-booking holidays.

Discussions on a potential vaccine passport will commence at the EU summit on Thursday.

The idea has been floating around EU Parliament for a number of months, however, it has mostly been ignored by some member states who see it as creating a discriminatory system against people who choose not to vaccinate themselves.

It is unlikely that most nations would have vaccinated a large enough percentage of their populations by the time of the peak tourism season owing to a reduced supply of vaccines, particularly in the EU.

The UK has revealed it will not be rolling out a mandatory vaccine passport to allow for travel, which has prompted employers to commence efforts to ensure all their employees are vaccinated.

Read more: UK companies look to mandate Covid jabs for jobseekers

Companies may be looking to contractually oblige employees both new and old to get vaccinated against Covid.

This could do its part to ensure industry and manufacturing get back up and running as soon as possible.

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