Hungarian government: EU vaccine certificate contributes to freedom of movement

Although Hungary remains critical of the European Union’s Covid-19 vaccination strategy, it voted to approve the bloc’s new digital vaccine certificate because it will help people regain their right to free movement, Fidesz MEP Balázs Hidvéghi said in an interview with CNN.

In the English-language interview posted on his Facebook page, Hidvéghi said the EU certificate will include information on the type of vaccine a person received or whether they had developed immunity by recovering from the virus.

“If this certificate can contribute to giving the people their freedom of movement and sense of normality, then let’s use it and let’s hope that we can get over this pandemic as soon as possible,” he said.

Hidvéghi said it was up to member states to decide whether they accept certain vaccines.

“It’s also part of this regulation that if a country accepts a certain vaccine from people coming from a certain country, then they will have to accept that vaccine from everybody else within the European Union,” he said. “So there’s no point in discriminating, obviously, on that basis.”

Hidvéghi said it was clear after a year and a half that vaccination was the key to overcoming the pandemic.