Council of Europe and COVID-19 vaccine

Question for written answer  E-004802/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Virginie Joron (ID), Jérôme Rivière (ID), Ivan Vilibor Sinčić (NI), Viktor Uspaskich (NI), Maxette Pirbakas (ID), Herve Juvin (ID), Joachim Kuhs (ID), Annika Bruna (ID), Robert Roos (ECR), Julie Lechanteux (ID), Anne-Sophie Pelletier (The Left), Hélène Laporte (ID), Jean-Lin Lacapelle (ID), Jean-François Jalkh (ID), Aurélia Beigneux (ID), Rob Rooken (ECR), Guido Reil (ID)

On 8 October 2021, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: ‘Our treaties are very clear. EU law has primacy over national law, including constitutional provisions[1]’. Since the end of 2019, the European Union has been negotiating, with the Council of Europe, its accession to the European Convention on Human Rights[2].

On 27 January 2021, the Council of Europe adopted a resolution on COVID-19 vaccines. The Parliamentary Assembly urges the Member States and the European Union to: ‘ensure that citizens are informed that the vaccination is NOT mandatory and that no one is under political, social or other pressure to be vaccinated if they do not wish to do so’ and ‘to ensure that no one is discriminated against for not having been vaccinated, due to possible health risks or not wanting to be vaccinated’[3].

• 1.How has the European Union applied this resolution?
• 2.Does this resolution not run counter to the introduction of mandatory vaccination for EU officials?

• [1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/statement_21_5163
• [2] The promotion of human rights and the monitoring of respect for those rights in its member countries are indeed the core work of the Council of Europe; https://www.coe.int/en/web/human-rights-intergovernmental-cooperation/accession-of-the-european-union-to-the-european-convention-on-human-rights
• [3] Resolution 2361 (2021), https://pace.coe.int/en/files/29004/html; point 7.3.1 ‘to ensure that citizens are informed that the vaccination is not mandatory and that no one is under political, social or other pressure to be vaccinated if they do not wish to do so’; point 7.3.2 ‘to ensure that no one is discriminated against for not having been vaccinated, due to possible health risks or not wanting to be vaccinated;’