The European Union on Thursday came to an agreement on the use a digital certificate system that would verify an individual has received a full coronavirus vaccine, thereby eliminating the current requirement to quarantine after passing through international borders, the Washington Post reports.
The certificate system would be one step closer to normalizing travel among the members of the EU, opening up additional rail traffic, a popular way to travel through Europe. The certificate system, which is expected to deploy July 1st, will allow people to easily update their vaccination status using authorized documents. Leaders hoped to have a system in place before the vacation season started in Europe.
“This will mark summer 2021. It will make all the difference, and we won’t be repeating the nightmare of summer 2020,” said Juan Fernando López Aguilar, a Spanish lawmaker who helped lead negotiations on behalf of the European Parliament. “People are going to be able to start thinking of booking holidays, booking hotel rooms, booking family holidays, booking trains. We have not been able to enjoy that freedom for over a year now.”