EU embraces the digital health pass

As Europe races to set up a digital health pass scheme to save the holiday season from the pandemic, technical and political obstacles are showing just how big a challenge the world faces in building such systems, people involved in the effort say.

Developers are grappling with issues ranging from the practical – such as what to accept as proof of being COVID-19 free – to the philosophical, including debates over discrimination and personal privacy.

Southern countries that depend on tourism like Spain, Greece and Portugal are clamouring for a quick rollout of the promised European Union “digital green pass”, saying their economies will not withstand the loss of another summer season.

The EU Commission plans to award a contract this month for a central system for verifying the digital passes, which will use QR codes that can be scanned into a smartphone app. It will also provide a template to help member countries develop their own apps – though some have already readied their own versions.

The gateway is supposed to launch in June after testing in May.

But the bloc’s less tourism-reliant northern states warn launching a viable solution so quickly will be a stretch, especially given the number of stakeholders in the 27-nation bloc.

“It’s an aggressive timeline and it requires cooperation,” said Mats Snall, the head of Sweden’s digital vaccine passport initiative.

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BUGS TO FIX

The list of unresolved issues in the vaccine passport scheme is long.

There is still no consensus on whether antibody tests provide sufficient proof that a person who has recovered from COVID-19 is immune, sources involved in the efforts say.

Adapting the scheme for overseas visitors represents a challenge too, after Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the New York Times on Sunday that the EU would open its doors to vaccinated Americans this summer.

Member states also worry about the security of personal information, though the Commission has promised the online certificates will contain minimal data: name, date of birth, the specific health information, its date of issue and a unique identifier code.

And while vaccine passports have not become a political football to the extent they have in the United States – where right-wing politicians denounce the idea as an impingement on personal freedom – concerns about digital tracking loom large.

The data put into the digital certificates will be easily amenable to forgeries, cautioned Michael Veale, who lectures on digital rights and regulation at University College London.