Coronavirus passports are coming to the European Parliament.
A valid EU Digital COVID certificate will be required for anyone — lawmaker or staff — who enters the Parliament’s premises in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg from November 3, according to an email sent Wednesday by the Parliament’s Directorate General for Personnel and obtained by POLITICO.
The decision was taken by the secretary-general of the Parliament, Klaus Welle, after a majority of the chamber’s vice presidents voted in favor of introducing the certificate.
But it also triggered outrage among some MEPs, who see it as undermining their fundamental rights.
“To our knowledge, the European Parliament would be the first in Europe to implement such a measure,” a group of MEPs, including François-Xavier Bellamy from the EPP, Michèle Rivasi from the Greens, Virginie Joron from the Identity and Democracy group and Anne-Sophie Pelletier from The Left, wrote in a letter sent Tuesday to Parliament President David Sassoli.
“This would breach a very fundamental principle in a democratic house: never should an elected representative, having fulfilled all legal obligations, be prevented from entering the Parliament,” the MEPs added.