Vaccines for all, free testing for all travelers and strong safeguards regarding the protection of personal data are the conditions for using the "EU COVID-19 Certificate" (the European Parliament requested to rename the Digital Green Certificate), achieved by the SYRIZA - Progressive Alliance Delegation at the European Parliament during the final voting of the Certificate by the majority of the MEPs.
The MEPs of SYRIZA - Progressive Alliance voted in favour of the introduction of the EU COVID-19 Certificate and they have been working intensively during the past weeks, taking into account the protection of the Public Health and the safe opening of Tourism and of the Economy in Greece.
As SYRIZA - Progressive Alliance MEPs point out in their statement, "this Certificate comes really late, as since June 2020, we called the European Parliament to include to its Resolution on Tourism, common protocols and rules in the European Union, for the passengers’ travel security and the safe opening of borders ".

Vaccines for all, free testing for all travelers and strong safeguards regarding the protection of personal data are the conditions for using the "COVID-19 Certificate" achieved by the SYRIZA - Progressive Alliance Delegation at the European Parliament during the final voting of the Certificate by the majority of the MEPs.

“EU COVID-19 Certificate” was initially called “Digital Green Certificate”, but that was changed later on by the European Parliament. SYRIZA - Progressive Alliance MEPs voted in favour of the introduction of the EU COVID-19 Certificate, they have been working intensively during the past weeks and have been building alliances in the relevant EP Committees, in order to improve the EU Commission`s proposal, taking into account the protection of the Public Health and the safe opening of Tourism and Economy in Greece.

Thus, the European Parliament adopted their position for free testing for all travelers, with the aim of making trips easier for all Europeans with the maximum safety and non-discrimination. This entails the financial burden of the diagnostic tests, which are now part of the Certificate. Vaccines are now considered as "public goods", as the only way to stop the pandemic is to achieve high vaccination rates worldwide. Above all, however, thanks to their efforts, strong safeguards have been put in place to protect personal data from the use of the EU COVID-19 Certificates.

EU COVID-19 Certificate, which is now formally adopted by the EP Plenary Session of the European Parliament to contribute to the safe movement of all EU citizens, is a technical proposal, which facilitates bureaucratic procedures between the Member - States and it is not a travel document. As SYRIZA - Progressive Alliance MEPs point out in their statement, "This Certificate comes really late, as since June 2020, we called the European Parliament to include to its Resolution on Tourism, common protocols and rules in the European Union, for the passengers’ travel security and the safe opening of borders ".

EU COVID-19 Certificate will certify three things: that the holders have been vaccinated against COVID-19, or that they have recovered from the disease, or that they have been tested negative for the COVID-19 virus.

SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance MEPs:

Dimitris Papadimoulis

Kostas Arvanitis

Alexis Georgoulis

Petros Kokkalis

Stelios Kouloglou

Elena Kountoura