The Digital Green Certificate - Guarantee of Free Movement within the EU or Means of Discrimination?

Abstract

In order to facilitate safe travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Commission has proposed the creation of a Digital Green Certificate. This instrument refers to the 27 EU Member States and the non-EU states which are part of the Schengen Area (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Lichtenstein), but it also includes provisions on the recognition of certificates issued by non-EU states. This paper seeks to analyze this certificate, but also the arguments put forward in support of the idea that it would guarantee freedom of movement within the EU, the fears that it would be a means of discrimination against those who wish to exercise this freedom in the EU space and the risk that this instrument will get stuck in the European “digital bureaucracy” in the absence of clear standards by which digital certificates can be interoperable and unanimously valid in the EU space.