Thread by @jonworth

The UK is indeed on the verge of joining the EU Digital COVID Pass - I know this from my own sources

In that regard, this Guardian piece is correct 👇
theguardian.com/travel/2021/oc…

But what is going on, technically here, and what changes will it bring for Brits travelling?

A 🧵

There are essentially 2 sorts of places where you might need to prove your 💉💉 status: upon entering a country (at a border control), or at a venue once you are inside a country (at a museum or cafe for example)

And there are 2 different ways to prove that status: the old way, based on papers, certificates, or the little yellow vaccination booklets. Or using a QR code - in the EU known as a EU Digital COVID Pass

(QR code can be on paper, but the important point is it's digitally signed)

A border guard - whose job it is to check documents all day every day - is more likely to have both the time and the ability to make sense of paper certificates

A stressed waiter in a cafe needs a simple, robust digital system - scan the code with a digital device

And please note here: this is no thread about what's right and wrong, politically, with systems like this - France has gone much further with vaccination status to access venues than the UK, and with countries like Germany or Slovenia somewhere in between

EU countries, and non-EU countries like the UK have been issuing digital COVID certificates since the late spring, and that has led to some confusion - some EU countries COVID apps have long been able to *read* UK issued QR codes, but not *verify* them

The distinction between *reading* a code, and *verifying* a code is central here

A verifier app reads the QR code, checks the issuer ID of the code against a list of accepted issuers, and then returns a VALID or NOT VALID response - if you are interested in the detail, it is all here:
q-perior.com/en/fokusthema/…

This makes sense as a means to prevent fraud!

You can find a list of all European countries' verifier apps here:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

A few countries - notably 🇮🇪🇫🇷🇮🇹🇧🇪 - have unilaterally coded their apps to accept UK issuer IDs as valid

But plenty of other countries - notably 🇳🇱🇩🇪 - have not, preferring instead to wait for 🇬🇧 to join the 🇪🇺 system

So far a bunch of non-EU countries have been accepted into the EU digital system
Albania
Andorra
Faroes
Iceland
Israel
Liechtenstein
Monaco
Morocco
North Macedonia
Norway
Panama
San Marino
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
Vatican City
ec.europa.eu/info/live-work…

But not yet UK

There are 3 possible reasons for the delay.

First, the poisonous politics in UK-EU relations
Second, I am told there were some data protection concerns
Third, UK does not have 1 issuer ID, but 4 - 1 for each of 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and Northern Ireland

(Quick caveat here: QRs from each part of the UK aren't compatible with *each other* fully, but the EU has managed to make a system work from Morocco to Norway, and Panama to North Macedonia - which is pretty damned cool if you think about it)

That is also then why I expect change to be *very swift* once a decision is made by the Commission here - if and when the component parts of 🇬🇧 comply with the requirements set out here ec.europa.eu/health/ehealth… everything else will then happen swiftly - a matter of days

So that - as clearly and correctly as I can - is where we are right now. Keep 👀 for news very soon as to whether 🇬🇧 has been accepted or not!

/ends