Secretariat‐General Head of Unit - C2 Ethics, Good Administration & Relations with the European Ombudsman European Commission

 

Dear Mr X,

On 2 November 2021, the European Ombudsman received a query, which is attached to this letter, from the Tuscan regional Ombudsman concerning the issues faced by individuals vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines that have not been authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The regional Ombudsman says that several members of the Chinese, Russian and Ukrainian communities in Italy were vaccinated in their countries of origin with COVID-19 vaccines that are not authorised by EMA, namely Sinovac and Sputnik. Consequently, they do not have the EU digital COVID certificate and have to be tested, at their own costs, to be able to access the workplace. 

Based on this query, we would like to ask the Commission to reply to the following questions:

Is the Commission aware of the issues faced by certain communities in accessing the EU Digital COVID Certificate because of the vaccine they received? Does the Commission have any advice on how these issues could be addressed?

Could the Commission also provide an overview of the legal framework and of the possibilities available to the Member States under Regulation (EU) 2021/953 to address the issues described in this query?

We would appreciate it if the Commission could respond to this query and the questions above by 14 January 2022, if possible, so that we can forward the information to the Tuscan regional Ombudsman. As the query submitted to our Office is in Italian, we would appreciate it if the Commission could provide its reply also in Italian.

A copy of this letter, and of the Commission’s reply, will be made available on the Ombudsman’s website.

Yours sincerely,

Rosita Hickey
Director of Inquiries

Strasbourg, 07/12/2021