German Law Journal 1651 provided by principles of free movement and non-discrimination for the legal rights of EU citizens, have substantial symbolic power and pull for the EU.99 Faced with a huge diversity of responses by the Member States, the European institutions’ response to the challenge posed by closed borders within the EU, especially during the first wave of the pandemic in March to June 2020, was marked by extensive recourse to “soft law,” rather than vain efforts at legal enforcement to force collective action. The aim was to persuade the Member States to keep certain sorts of movement going throughout and then gradually to loosen restrictions on mobility within the EU100 and also at the external borders.101 Iris Goldner Lang describes this as an application of the precautionary principle in the context of public health derogations that are undoubtedly permitted under the existing free movement principles.102 Closer—and critical—attention103 has been paid to the creation of an EU Digital COVID certificate,104 related to proof of COVID-19 vaccination, test, or recovery, to allow not just free movement between states and passage across the external frontiers of the EU105 but also—at the discretion of Member States—access to facilities within states, such as museums, leisure facilities, concerts, and even shops. As regards issues of mobility across borders, this development is part of a wider global movement towards the adoption of vaccine passports. It builds upon some of the existing digital trust schemes to promote easy mobility for global elites through airports and across 99 Daniel Thym & Jonas Bornemann, Schengen and Free Movement Law During the First Phase of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Of Symbolism, Law and Politics, 5(3) EUR. PAPERS 1143 (2020). 100 Commission Communication Guidelines Concerning the Exercise of the Free Movement of Workers During COVID-19 Outbreak, 2020/C 102 I/03, 2020 O.J. C 1021 (Mar. 30, 2020), https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX: 52020XC0330(03); Commission Communication Guidelines on Seasonal Workers in the EU in the Context of the COVID-19 Outbreak, 2020/C 235 I/1, 2020 O.J. C 2351 (Jul. 17, 2020), https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX: 52020XC0717(04); Council Recommendation (EU) 2020/1475 on a Coordinated Approach to the Restriction of Free Movement in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020 O.J. (L 337/3), (Oct. 14, 2020), http://data.europa.eu/eli/reco/ 2020/1475/oj; Commission Communication Towards a Phased and Coordinated Approach for Restoring Freedom of Movement and Lifting Internal Border Controls—COVID-19, 2020/C 169/3 C/2020/3250, 2020 O.J. C 169 (May 15, 2020) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.C_.2020.169.01.0030.01.ENG. 101 Commission Communication COVID-19 Guidance on the Implementation of the Temporary Restriction on Non-essential Travel to the EU, on the Facilitation of Transit Arrangements for the Repatriation of EU Citizens, and on the Effects on Visa Policy, 2020/C 102 I/2 C/2020/2050 2020 O.J. C 1021, (Mar. 30, 2020), https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/? uri=CELEX:52020XC0330(02); Council Recommendation (EU) 2020/912 on the Temporary Restriction on Non-essential Travel into the EU and the Possible Lifting of Such Restriction, ST/9208/2020/INIT 2020 O.J. (L 208I/1) (Jul. 1, 2020) http://data.europa.eu/eli/reco/2020/912/oj; Commission Communication on the Third Assessment of the Application of the Temporary Restriction on Non-essential Travel to the EU, COM (2020) 399 final (Jun. 11, 2020), https://eur-lex. europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0399. 102 See Iris Goldner Lang, “Laws of Fear” in the EU: The Precautionary Principle and Public Health Restrictions to Free Movement of Persons in the Time of COVID-19, EUR. J. RISK REGUL. (2021), https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-riskregulation/article/laws-of-fear-in-the-eu-the-precautionary-principle-and-public-health-restrictions-to-free-movementof-persons-in-the-time-of-covid19/56741AF86D63D0465EC1AA364CA136CB. See also Sophie Robin-Olivier, Free Movement of Workers in the Light of the COVID-19 Sanitary Crisis: From Restrictive Selection to Selective Mobility, 5 EUR. PAPERS 613 (2020). 103 See Alberto Alemanno & Luiza Bialasiewicz, Certifying Health: The Unequal Legal Geographies of COVID-19 Certificates, 12 EUR. J. RISK REGUL. 273 (2021). This paper is the introduction to an extensive special issue on the topic. 104 For a basic primer, see EUR. COMM’N, EU Digital COVID Certificate, https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/ coronavirus-response/safe-covid-19-vaccines-europeans/eu-digital-covid-certificate_en. 105 EP and Council Regulation (EU) 2021/953 on a Framework for the Issuance, Verification and Acceptance of Interoperable COVID-19 Vaccination, Test and Recovery Certificates (EU Digital COVID Certificate) to Facilitate Free Movement During the COVID-19 Pandemic, PE/25/2021/REV/1 2021 O.J. (L 211), (Jun. 15, 2021), http://data.europa.eu/ eli/reg/2021/953/oj; EP and Council Regulation (EU) 2021/954 on a Framework for the Issuance, Verification and Acceptance of Interoperable COVID-19 Vaccination, Test and Recovery Certificates (EU Digital COVID Certificate) with Regard to Third-country Nationals Legally Staying or Residing in the Territories of Member States During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 24–28, PE/26/2021/REV/1 2021 O.J. (L 211), (Jun. 15, 2021), http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2021/954/oj. https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2021.77 Published online by Cambridge University Press