The European Parliament on Thursday requested that a common vaccination certificate and an EU health certificate for providers of tourism services should become an integral part of the EU's new tourism strategy.

At a plenary earlier this week members of the European Parliament discussed the adoption of an EU strategy for sustainable tourism, and on Thursday they adopted, with 577 votes in favour, 31 against and 80 abstentions, a resolution supporting the introduction of a health certificate facilitating travel and calling for assistance to the EU’s tourism sector, hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The resolution stresses that the coronavirus pandemic has paralysed the EU’s tourism industry, threatening 6 million of the 27 million jobs in the sector.

MEPs also call for adopting as soon as possible a new European tourism strategy focusing on sustainable development, digitalisation and recovery from the consequences of the pandemic.

On 17 March the European Commission presented a draft regulation on a digital green certificate to facilitate free travel in the EU and an accompanying proposal on third-country citizens legally staying in the EU, and MEPs on Thursday decided to step up the process of approving green digital certificates so that they could be introduced by summer.