BRUSSELS — A total of 13 EU countries have agreed on specific criteria for issuing a green passport for tourism, confirming that the holder is free of COVID-19, Austria's Tourism Minister Elisabeth Köstinger revealed on Monday.

This passport will allow one to move freely within the countries covered by the green passport, Austria Press Agency quoted the minister, as saying.

These countries include Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain, alongside Austria, which had originally proposed the move.

Although this is a European scheme, the data of citizens will be stored individually by each state, and there will be no centralized database due to data protection concerns.

The new digital certificate would allow holders to scan a QR code, which would determine if they were vaccinated, had recovered from the coronavirus or had tested negative, she pointed out. — KUNA