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It describes the conditions for entering Austria that applied in 2021. Austria has lifted the travel restrictions connected with covid-19 and nothing below applies any more.

What applies today when travelling to Austria can be found at oesterreich.gv.at. We keep the page as a record.

After long negotiations, representatives of the member states and of the European Parliament reached a compromise that envisages the introduction of a free certificate in digital or paper form - the Covid pass. .Interest in stays abroad is enormous. From Czechia alone, more than a million people want to travel abroad. European covid passes are meant to be the solution for travellers. 

The Covid pass containing data and rules, which the European Union is preparing in order to simplify travel, should come into force from the summer holidays. Besides everyone vaccinated, those who have recently had covid-19 should also be entitled to the document, and in addition people who take a negative test before travelling. The tests will not be free. According to MEPs they will be "affordable" and EU funds will help the states pay for them.

Which vaccine will be recognised?

MEPs agreed that only vaccination with vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will be recognised. Individual EU states may, however, also accept vaccines not yet approved. The planned European covid pass should work on the principle of QR codes and a paper form is also envisaged. It will be a certificate that allows travel only within the European Union, not beyond its borders.

What must an applicant for a covid pass go through?

The main criteria are to be vaccination, a negative test that is to be affordable, and the presence of antibodies. Member states then create their own applications themselves. It is in these applications that the single EU certificate will be stored.

What is the covid pass meant to be for?

Travel agencies in particular are waiting for the covid passes, for which the novelty should considerably simplify administration. Thanks to the passes, the system by which a person would prove their status when travelling abroad would be unified.

The covid pass and restaurants

Restaurants would welcome wider use of covid passes, but here the use is problematic because of personal data. Individual EU member states must decide on wider use.

Neighbouring countries

The Visegrád Four countries, that is Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, should recognise each other's vaccination certificates. The aim is to start up services that depend on tourists.

What is Czechia preparing?

The Czech government wants an agreement with selected countries and is also preparing its own rules for travel. People who are two weeks past complete vaccination against the coronavirus could travel more easily from the middle of May. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš spoke of Hungary, Germany, Poland, Austria and Slovakia, but also of Croatia, Greece and Bulgaria.

The biggest complication is personal data

The covid passes, which are to make travel easier for people from the summer, must rule out any discrimination and ensure the protection of personal data. MEPs agree on this. The certificate will contain the minimum necessary amount of personal data and will not be a mandatory condition for travel across borders, it will only make it easier.

When will it really happen?

The European Parliament should definitively approve the introduction of the passes at the plenary session in the first half of June, and the member states' consent may follow immediately. According to the Commission, the covid passes could be in operation from the beginning of July, when the rules are to enter into force. Even earlier, however, a regional agreement between Czechia, Austria, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia is envisaged. It would allow travel for people vaccinated against COVID-19. The MEPs' negotiations will probably be long; since the start of the pandemic they have managed to agree on unifying some travel criteria, but so far they have not found a common view on, for example, the mutual recognition of tests.

Text by: nos

Source: E15