EU Members Agree On Technical Specifications For Future Digital COVID-19 Passports

The EU member states have agreed on technical specifications for the Digital Green Certificate, which certifies a person's COVID-19 vaccination status and facilitates movement across the bloc, ahead of its planned rollout in June, the European Commission said on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd April, 2021) The EU member states have agreed on technical specifications for the Digital Green Certificate, which certifies a person's COVID-19 vaccination status and facilitates movement across the bloc, ahead of its planned rollout in June, the European Commission said on Thursday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the launch of the bloc-wide coronavirus vaccination passports last month.

"Member States representatives in the eHealth Network agreed on guidelines describing the main technical specifications for the implementation of the system ... It is of utmost importance to advance the work on the technical implementation, in parallel to the ongoing legislative process, to ensure a roll-out of Digital Green Certificates across the EU by June 2021," the EU body said in a press release.

The specifications, in particular, concern data structure and encoding mechanisms, including the QR code, set to ensure that certificates issued on paper can also be verified across the EU.

"The guidelines also describe the EU gateway ... [that] will allow the sharing of electronic signature keys so that the authenticity of Digital Green Certificates can be verified across the EU. No personal data of certificate holders will pass through the gateway, as this is not necessary for the verification," the press release read.

The member states also specified reference implementations for software to issue the digital certificates, a reference app to verify these passports, and a template for a wallet app for citizens to store them.