The non-discrimination principle and personal data protection in the context of the EU digital COVID certificate

Abstract

The measures adopted so far, on EU Members-States level, aiming at containing Covid-19 have, very often, demonstrated an extremely fragmented, un-coordinated and controversial policy-making process. On July 1^st, 2021, the EU Digital Covid Certificate entered into application throughout the EU seeking to provide for a common, harmonized, common legal framework in order to protect public health, re-open the borders, re-activate European economy, and facilitate the free movement of individuals during pandemic through establishing secure, verifiable, and interoperable measures across the EU territory. Issues of non-discrimination and equality, freedom of movement, working conditions, data protection, asylum and migration, human dignity, the rule of law, and the overall respect for human rights have been raised. 

Regarding the issue of non-discrimination, the Regulation aspires to create a legal framework through which the right to free movement of persons would be facilitated, and the requirements for the gradual lifting of constraints to free movement, imposed by Member States, would be laid down in a coordinated manner.

Considering the personal data protection issues, no derogation from the so far established EU legal framework on personal data protection is foreseen, and all the robust safeguards set by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on personal data protection are expected to be incorporated in any measure taken by Member States.