The European Union has been urged to “prepare itself better” for potential future emergencies following a review of the digital tools used to allow travel during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found that only the EU’s digital Covid certificate was “effective in facilitating travel” during the pandemic, with other tools developed by the EU during this period only having a “modest” impact.
The auditors found that use of three EU tools – a contact-tracing gateway, digital passenger locator forms and a platform allowing EU countries to exchange these forms – were less successful than the widely used Covid certificate.
The ECA said that that while the European Commission had “moved fast to propose suitable technological solutions”, these tools’ usage had “varied significantly” between countries and their impact had been “uneven” in facilitating travel.
Baudilio Tome Muguruza, the ECA member responsible for the audit of the EU’s digital tools, said: “It was crucial that all EU countries adopt common tools to co-ordinate free movement restrictions and facilitate travel despite the unprecedented situation we were faced with.
“Not all EU tools were taken up by member states and the success of the EU digital Covid certificate was not reflected in other tools.”
Auditors said that the EU had provided €71 million to produce these digital travel tools and took a “pragmatic approach to developing the tools under time constraints”. But the EU-wide passenger locator form was created “too late”, with some countries coming up with their own forms more quickly.
“The auditors also note that the European Commission did not manage to overcome certain member states’ reservations in using the EU tools, due to data protection and other legal concerns, and also because they had already developed their own national tools,” said the ECA in a statement.
“Generally, though, the commission addressed data protection concerns and applied good IT security practices.”
The auditors pointed out that only four countries used the digital passenger locator form, with one member, Italy, issuing more than 90 per cent of all forms. Meanwhile the exchange system for these forms was “hardly used at all”, and the contact-tracking applications were mostly utilised in Germany.
“In practice, the EU digital Covid certificate was the only tool used in all member states and even by 45 non-EU countries and territories. More than 1.7 billion certificates had been issued by the end of March 2022,” added the auditors.
“The auditors conclude that only the EU digital Covid certificate helped to co-ordinate travel restrictions between EU countries and was effective in facilitating travel during the Covid- 19 pandemic.”
The ECA also flagged up the “lack of specific procedures” for reactivating the tools if needed in the future, with the current legal basis for the digital Covid certificate due to expire in June 2023.