MEP Yana Toom: Much less substance to corona passport than could be

29/04/2021

MEP Yana Toom (Centre) to ERR: "I would expect that instead of focusing on promoting the green certificate, the EU would handle vaccinations."

On Wednesday, the European Parliament green-lighted discussions over the development of a coronavirus passport by mid-June. MEP Yana Toom said the certificate has much less substance than hoped for.

The EU has agreed that a consensus regarding the Digital Green Certificate must be reached by mid-June. By that point, a solution must also be found to data security questions and even questions about how people who are immune after recovering from the coronavirus are treated, ETV's daily affairs "Aktuaalne kaamera" reported on Wednesday evening.

MEP Yana Toom (Center) assessed that countries depending on tourism cannot wait for this agreement to be made and will likely find a solution earlier.

"Nobody knows today how member states will exactly begin implementing this certificate, what it allows and what it does not. It is actually up to each state to decide. So to me, it seems like a big information bubble, which actually holds much less substance than I would like to see," Toom said.

She thinks there are more burning issues currently. "I would expect that instead of focusing on promoting the green certificate, the EU would handle vaccinations. We have - I would not say failed - but we are strongly behind where we should have been and that is problem number one," Toom said.