First EU country to greenlight Ukraine's vaccination certificates

Hungary has become the first European Union member state to recognize Ukrainian certificates of complete COVID-19 vaccination, opening borders to Ukrainians holding such certificates from June 11.

That's according to Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, who broke the news on Twitter.

"It's official: Ukraine and Hungary have mutually recognized COVID-19 vaccination certificates. From June 11, travel with domestic certificates of full vaccination is allowed. Congratulations to my counterpart and friend Peter Szijjarto on the successful implementation of our agreement," Kuleba wrote.

According to the top diplomat, Hungary has become the first EU country with which such an agreement has been sealed.

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• In May, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry began active work on concluding bilateral agreements on the recognition of national vaccination certificates for the summer travel period. In particular, Ukraine is ready to conclude such agreements with all interested countries until a single mechanism for vaccination certificates appears at the European level.
• On June 9, the European Parliament finally gave the green light to introducing digital COVID certificates for travel amid pandemic. Legislation is yet to be approved by the Council of the EU and then published in the Official Journal of the EU for digital COVID certificates to take effect and begin to be used from July 1, 2021.
• Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Oleg Nemchinov, said Ukraine would be introducing digital COVID certificates 10-14 days after the European Union's move.