The European Parliament is today voting on a proposal from the European Commission for an EU coronavirus passport. Urgent consideration means the coronavirus passport can become reality by the summer, and that is important for many shipping companies.
Travel and crossing borders in the EU this summer could be about to become much easier than what we’ve been used to in the past few months.
The European Commission’s proposal for an EU coronavirus passport will facilitate travel within the EU for travellers who have been vaccinated, have a negative coronavirus test or have previously been infected with COVID-19.
The European Parliament is voting today on the proposal. It has already been agreed to use the urgency procedure so that it can be considered more quickly.
Peder Gellert Pedersen, Head of Ferry and Executive Vice President, DFDS says:
“Initiatives that support safe and free movement within the EU are really welcome. A digital solution like the green certificate is essential to restart our passenger business and grow numbers in our passenger route network, and we are following this development closely in order to secure fast implementation. For DFDS it is of course equally important that such a solution is backed by neighbouring countries to the EU like the UK and Norway.”
Danish Shipping is also closely following the debate on the coronavirus passport – called the Digital Green Certificate.
Jacob K. Clasen, Deputy CEO of Danish Shipping, says:
“The easier it is to travel, the greater the likelihood that passengers will return quickly. We have ferry companies in particular who have really had very few passengers in the past year, and I’m therefore hoping that the coronavirus passport can become a reality before the summer holidays.”
Mobility has been, and still is, subject to restrictions. This applies to both private and business travel. It means that shipping companies must consider a huge number of national guidelines and solutions in the markets where they operate.
A more harmonised solution will without doubt ease the administrative burden for shipping companies until the situation with COVID-19 allows a return to normal conditions, in which travellers do not need to show special documents to cross borders in the EU and Norway.
“It’s never an easy process to create a harmonised European solution that is able to take account of passengers, freight and, in our case, seafarers. But it’s really important that the EU gets this solution sorted out as quickly as possible so that we can look forward to a summer where people can travel around Europe again,” says Jacob K. Clasen.
Source: Danish Shipping
