The allegation made by a high-ranking EU official that the EU has never pushed citizens to get vaccinations against COVID-19 has been hit with disbelief from critics.
On Tuesday, a high-ranking EU official stunned onlookers after she stated that the EU had never urged its citizens to get vaccinated against covid to be able access public services, and that a lot of the allegations of this were spread by “anti-vaccine activists.”
In the midst of a big push to renew its internaitonal system of COVID-19 passports that prove whether or not someone is vaccinated and/or boosted against the virus, which one MEP says is a way for EU member states to restrict their own citizens.
Even with the planned renewal of COVID permits as well as the EU’s past public interest in adopting a uniform vaccination policy throughout the bloc, Vera Jourova – the EU’s commissioner for “Transparency” – stated during the Special Committee on the pandemic that forcing people to be vaccinated had never been considered.
“We were never pushing people to get vaccinated as a condition for publicly available services or health care,” said the Commissioner before the committee, adding that the EU has never even “considered some law or…obligation to be immunized.”
However, Jourová stated that arguments to the effect that “if you are not vaccinated, you will not have access to public places or receive services (sic)” were being largely pushed by what she termed “anti-vaccine activists.”
Others, on the other hand, were less certain of her case. Elected politician Cristian Terhes MEP questioned whether Jourová was genuinely being “serious” with her statement, to which she responded that she was.
The Romanian politician asked, “Madame Commissioner, I’m afraid I must stop you — Madame Commissioner, are you being serious right now?”
“…we are talking about the underlying freedoms of every EU person, and we were just told that using this green certificate, citizens were not compelled to be vaccinated. Are we being serious? Can we look individuals in the face and tell them that?”
He explained he had to “fight” with EU security to obtain access to the EU parliament without a vaccine pass, which appears to go against the commissioner’s comments.