Digital travel pass kicks off EU-wide as vacations gain pace

As the European summer vacation season is hitting its stride with a new EU-wide travel pass in place, the bloc’s medical office and a top airline chief issued reassuring messages about traveling, despite the threat of the surging delta coronavirus variant

BRUSSELS -- As the European summer vacation season hit its stride Thursday with a new EU-wide travel pass in place, the bloc's medical office and a top airline chief issued reassuring messages on traveling, despite the threat of the surging delta coronavirus variant. Many airports saw busy scenes as masses of people sought to escape to the sunny southern European Union nations for a beach holiday, with the digital COVID-19 travel certificate a must-have. The EU Digital Certificate came officially into effect Thursday even though many member states had started introducing it over the past month, seeking to boost their summer season by making movement as seamless as possible. “With this, everyone in Europe should be able to travel safely and freely this summer,” said EU Commission spokesman Christian Wigand. And in a bloc of 450 million citizens, he said that "already until now, more than two hundred million certificates have been generated.”