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Greece and Israel on Monday signed a deal that will allow people vaccinated against the coronavirus to move freely between the two countries once travel restarts.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has pushed the EU to adopt a common vaccination passport to help the tourism industry but Brussels has been hesitant, so far limiting its support to medical purposes only. Opponents of vaccine passports have flagged concerns about discrimination and privacy.
Both countries already have so-called “green passports” in operation domestically. Today’s deal to mutually recognize those vaccination certificates was signed during a visit by Mitsotakis to Jerusalem, during which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted it would allow travel “without any limitations, no self-isolation, nothing.”
“I expect what we will be doing with Israel to be a trial run of what we can do with other countries,” Mitsotakis said.
Mitsotakis congratulated Netanyahu on the country’s vaccination drive — Israel is racing ahead when it comes to the number of people that have been given the shot — and said he is looking forward to welcoming Israeli tourists to Greece once more Greeks have been vaccinated and travel restrictions can be lifted.
On Sunday Greek authorities extended travel restrictions for all international flights. All arrivals have to carry a negative PCR test taken up to 72 hours before the flight and quarantine for seven days. All international flights to Israel are currently banned.
“I expect that by April we will have suppressed the epidemic much further and also we are moving fast with vaccination plan[s],” the Greek prime minister added.
Mitsotakis, a big proponent of an EU vaccination certificate, was the first leader to submit the idea to the European Commission back in January in a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reported by POLITICO.
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