The EU’s Digital COVID Certificate reached another milestone on Tuesday (1 June) with the go-live of the technical system at the EU level, followed by seven member states that started rolling out their certificates.
Seven member states – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Croatia, and Poland – connected to the gateway and started issuing the first EU certificates, almost a month ahead of 1 July, when the proposal enters the application phase.
A provisional deal on the certificate, previously known as the digital green certificate, was reached on 20 May, while the regulation will be applied from 1 July.
But countries which have passed the technical tests and are ready to issue and verify certificates are already encouraged to start using the system on a voluntary basis.
The roll-out depends on each country’s progress. Germany started a partial roll-out, for example, with certificates available only in several regions.
Three more countries also linked to the gateway on Tuesday are slated to start rolling out the certificates soon, while some other EU countries will launch it only when all functions can be deployed nationwide.