MEPs from across the EU have told Breitbart Europe that they will continue to challenge the EU’s COVID pass regime as it comes up for renewal on Thursday.
Update 1200BST: Europarl votes 453 to 119 to extend the bloc’s COVID Pass regime until Summer 2023
Representatives within the legislature have been quick to express their disappointment at the ruling, with many questioning the effectiveness of the measure while condemning its alleged encroachments on individual liberty.
“It remains a mystery how one can come up with the idea that the digital COVID certificate should contribute to containing the pandemic,” Alternative für Deutschland’s EU Parliament Health Policy spokesman, Dr. Sylvia Limmer MEP said in a statement provided to Breitbart Europe.”
It has been proven that the vaccinated and the unvaccinated can be infected with the coronavirus and carry the same viral loads with them, across European and non-European borders,” she asserted while describing the pass system as “an attack on freedom, human rights and human dignity”.
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Members of the European Union’s Parliament (MEPs) have told Breitbart Europe that they will continue to fight against the bloc’s regime of COVID passes as their renewal is voted upon by the European Parliament on Thursday.
Having been set to expire at the end of this month, the bloc’s Civil Liberties committee voted last week to see the measures extended for another year, justifying the decision by saying that it was important to have the COVID pass system in place “in case it is needed”.
However, several representatives elected to the European Parliament from across the EU have told Breitbart Europe that they vehemently oppose such a renewal, with a number of MEPs saying that the measures represent an unjustifiable intrusion on the rights of ordinary people.
“Not only does the certificate clearly impede our fundamental freedoms, but it also has a devastating impact on businesses and the travel and tourism sector,” Dr. Nicolaus Fest MEP — the leader of Alternative für Deutschland’s delegation to the EU — told Breitbart Europe, also emphasising that his populist party had always strongly opposed the system.
“The certificate was clearly designed to discriminate against unvaccinated citizens in an attempt to coerce them into taking the vaccine,” the German politician continued. “It is immoral and unlawful and we will be voting against its extension.”
This sentiment that the COVID pass system intrudes on the rights of individuals was echoed by fellow Identity and Democracy Group member Tom Vandendriessche MEP, with the Flemish politician also claiming that the pass had not even allegedly worked in preventing the spread of the disease.
“By now data has clearly pointed out the uselessness of the vaccine pass in fighting the virus,” the Vlaams Belang politician told Breitbart Europe, describing the regime as “unscientific, ineffective and a disproportionate”.
“The European Union however chooses to extend the vaccine pass,” Vandendriessche continued. “This demonstrates that the vaccine pass never had anything to do with health. From the outset it has been about control and power of bureaucrats over citizens.”
Members of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group who spoke to Breitbart Europe were just as adamant in their opposition to the EU’s regime of COVID passes, with one MEP calling on all Europeans to resist the measure.
“The current leadership of EU is more eager to implement communist measures instead of being inspired by the founding fathers of the European project, who envisioned Europe as an “area of freedom”, respect for people’s rights and governments serving their citizens, not oppressing them,” Romanian representative Cristian Terhes told Breitbart Europe.
“The EU Digital Covid Certificate proved to be an instrument not to combat COVID, but to control and condition the citizens in exercising their rights,” the Christian Democratic National Peasants’ Party politician continued. “This instrument, along with the Digital Identity, is the building block in creating in EU a dystopian social credit system, like in China.”
“The Europeans must do everything in our power to resist and reject putting such dangerous weapons into the hands of the European Commission,” he concluded.
Voting on the extension of the COVID pass regime is set to take place after 11:30am local time (0530 EST).
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