EU expected to introduce nine-month expiration date on Covid travel passes

By summer adults would need to prove they’ve had a booster shot

Health passes with QR codes are required for domestic and international travel in many countries (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The EU is expected introduce a time limit for Covid passes for travel.

The bloc is reportedly on the cusp of agreeing to a nine-month expiration date for vaccination certificates, sources told Reuters.

The move would mean that double-jabbed travellers would need to have had a Covid-19 booster shot by next summer in order to be considered “fully vaccinated” for the purposes of travel.

The EU executive commission first proposed the measure in November, with a suggested start date of 10 January 2022.

EU governments could approve the nine-month limit as early as today, one EU official and one EU diplomat confirmed, after a preliminary agreement was reached yesterday.

However, one source also said there was a possibility that talks could extend into next week.

Some EU countries have already introduced their own time limits on Covid passes for travel.

Austria initially created a rule that, for double-shot vaccines, visitors had to show that they had received the second injection no more than 270 days before arrival - later extending this period to 365 days.

Croatia also stipulates that visitors should have “proof of a vaccination, not older than 365 days” or else present a negative Covid test or proof of recovery from coronavirus.

And in France, from 15 December, anyone aged 65 and over must have had a booster jab six months and five weeks after their second jab - or risk being barred from France’s indoor venues.

Since 9 August, visitors to all French restaurants and any venue accommodating 50 people or more, in addition to regional train and plane passengers, have been required to display their pass sanitaire, a proof of vaccination QR code stored within the TousAntiCovid app - for which the NHS’s Covid Pass is now accepted.

But from next week, health pass QR codes for all those aged 65 or above will automatically be deactivated six months and five weeks after their second vaccine shot.