Will Bosnia and Herzegovina introduce COVID passports?

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The European Parliament concluded that a COVID certificate should be introduced for 12 months, and the final decision is to be made by the Council of the European Union.

This document, in digital or paper form, would guarantee for Union citizens that a person has been vaccinated or has recovered from COVID-19.

The certificate should also be issued to citizens of third countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The intention is to introduce this certificate by the beginning of summer. What can citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina expect?

With the arrival of better weather and an increase in the number of vaccinated people, travel is becoming easier. However, for travel to proceed smoothly, at least according to the announcements of the European Parliament, the introduction of COVID passports is necessary. As Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a member of the European Union, and is also a complex country, the introduction of COVID passports presents a problem even before its introduction, writes BHRT.

"As a country that is not yet within the EU, we would have many problems, so I am afraid that it will create additional administrative problems, of which we already have too many, and I advocate for complete human freedom," says Ahmedin Šabanagić, director of the agency "Autoprevoz-Bus", Mostar.

"Before guests even arrive in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we should be a country on at least the orange, yellow, or green list for guests to come at all. We had problems before when crossing the border, it took a long time at Doljani, at any border crossing, while the whole bus was inspected, and now there will be bigger problems and bigger procedures with that," notes Sanja Kaljužny from Fortuna Tours, Mostar.

Anyone who has recovered from COVID in our country and has reported to their family doctor can get a certificate of recovery from the infection with which they can travel. Those who were tested in private laboratories cannot get that certificate.

"Regarding the extract from medical documentation, i.e., a certificate clearly showing that the person has recovered from COVID-19, they can currently travel to the Republic of Croatia, and for all other countries, they must check their websites, so some countries confirm these extracts from medical documentation for three, some for six months, and all of that is subject to change," said the spokesperson for the Mostar Health Center, Ines Popovac.

For now, the Sarajevo Canton is the only one in our country that should launch an application for obtaining a COVID passport. All vaccinated residents of Sarajevo Canton could get it, regardless of where they were vaccinated. Therefore, questions arise such as - what about other citizens of our country? What about those who were vaccinated with the Russian or Chinese vaccine, which has not yet been approved by the European Medicines Agency? What about those who have only received the first dose?

The introduction of COVID passports has not yet been placed at the state level; rather, individual cantons or entities are dealing with it.

An additional absurdity for our country is that Bosnia and Herzegovina receives vaccines sparingly, mostly from donations, and these vaccines are precisely one of the basic elements that would be represented in a COVID passport.

"If an agreement is reached within the EU at all, if a decision is made and adopted to introduce it, they should give us the necessary input so that we can prepare in a timely manner, and of course, we will follow the EU; if they make that decision, we are already working on being ready," said the Minister of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ankica Gudeljević.

Since the European Union itself is not yet clear on how it will implement this procedure, it is difficult to expect it to proceed without problems in our country. However, for now, it is clear that the COVID passport will not serve as a travel document.