ELI Publishes 2021 Supplement to the ELI Principles for the COVID-19 Crisis

14.04.2021

On 14 April 2021, the ELI Council approved the 2021 Supplement to the ELI Principles for the COVID-19 Crisis, which addresses the issue of the proportionality of measures in cases of a low epidemiological risk and the issue of the equitable distribution of vaccines.

Click here to access the 2021 Supplement to the ELI Principles for the COVID-19 Crisis.

The Consolidated Version of the 2020 ELI Principles for the COVID-19 Crisis and the 2021 Supplement is available here.

In May 2020, ELI published the ELI Principles for the COVID-19 Crisis, which were since then translated into several languages and proved useful and insightful throughout Europe and beyond. Now, almost a year since the publication, the pandemic situation changed and certain new legal issues are emerging, for example in relation to vaccination and testing.

The European Commission published on 17 March 2021 a strategy for a common path to Europe's safe re-opening, which includes, inter alia, the basis for a Europe-wide Digital Green Certificate. However, important decisions, including which restrictions to lift under which circumstances, remain with the individual Member States. The same holds true for the rollout and prioritisation of vaccinations. In the same vein as the existing ELI Principles for the COVID-19 Crisis, ELI wishes to provide further guidance on these issues by way of supplementing these Principles with two new Principles dealing with these matters.

The Supplement was discussed at the webinar on 23 March 2021 and rich feedback was provided by ELI Members. The final version, available here, is the outcome of the exchange of a broad range of views by members of the European legal community and represents ELI’s spirit of collaborative working.