Answer given by Ms Johansson on behalf of the European Commission

1. The full scale of the falsification of PCR certificates on the European level is difficult to estimate on the basis of information that is currently available to the European Union law enforcement agency (Europol). The cases reported in the Early Warning Notification (EWN) issued by Europol were derived from Member States contributions and Open Source Intelligence. Some of them pointed to organised criminality while others highlighted the involvement of individual opportunistic scammers, all exploiting the relative simplicity with which these documents can be forged (using readily available software and printers). Since the publication of this EWN, a few cases were directly reported to Europol.

2. The EWN issued by Europol was a first step aimed at raising awareness among the law enforcement authorities and encouraging them to share information on potential cases. Europol is closely monitoring the situation in order to provide an updated intelligence picture to its law enforcement partners and coordinate potential actions.

3. On 17 March 2021, the Commission adopted a legislative proposal on Digital Green Certificates[1]. The draft Regulation sets the basis for a common, secure, standardised and interoperable framework, ensuring the acceptance of the certificates in all Member States. The ‘Digital Green Certificate’ can be composed of a vaccination certificate, a test certificate and a certificate of recovery. The proposed Regulation will allow for the decentralised verification of digitally signed interoperable certificates, and thus help prevent abuse and forgery.

• [1] Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on a framework for the issuance, verification and acceptance of interoperable certificates on vaccination, testing and recovery to facilitate free movement during the COVID-19 pandemic (Digital Green Certificate), COM (2021) 130 final.