A few hours before Christmas Eve, Jean-Luc Mélenchon gave a gift to his subscribers on social networks. The candidate for France’s rebellious presidential election posted a video on his two Facebook accounts on December 24, promising a “revelation” on the origins of “vaccine pass”, of which the deputy of Marseilles affirms that he was “planned by the European Commission from 2019”, “before the pandemic” of Covid-19. The footage was viewed more than 510,000 times in less than four days and elicited more than 2,700 comments. But is this viral post from the chosen one telling the truth or “fake”?
Jean-Luc Mélenchon does not specify it, but the video he posted just before Christmas dates from more than eleven months ago. This is an excerpt from the program “Face à Duhamel” on January 18, in which Alain Duhamel, columnist at BFMTV, discusses with Sophia Chikirou, who was Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s communication advisor during the presidential campaign of 2017 and the Europeans of 2019 and who has since been elected LFI regional councilor in Ile-de-France.
When Sophia Chikirou spoke in January, the debate focused on the usefulness of creating a vaccination passport. The vaccination campaign against Covid-19 began shortly before, at the end of December 2020, and the idea of a document allowing vaccinated people to certify their status and thus to find a semblance of normal life begins to gain ground. . But at the time, the health pass had not yet seen the light of day. It began to be required in France six months later, in June.
“I found a working document from the European Commission, which dates from March 2019, which has since been working on the idea of a European Community vaccine passport”, declares Sophia Chikirou. “The idea is not new. It does not arise during this pandemic”, adds the communications advisor. “This is a project that the European Commission already had in its drawers and that it has been implementing since”, assures this close to Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “I am not a conspirator, rest assured. I am not going to say that it was thought of before”, however, she slips at the conclusion of her “revelation”.
In January, Sophia Chikirou was not the only one to say this kind of thing. Social networks were swarming with posts claiming that a vaccine passport project was in the works in the EU long before the onset of the health crisis. This thesis, to which AFP Factuel had devoted a fact-checking article, also appeared in the film with conspiratorial overtones. Hold-Up. Internet users who propagated this theory shared the screenshot of a document (in English) emanating from the European Commission and proposing in particular the creation of a “vaccination card”, also called “passport” vaccination.
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This “roadmap” suggested to“study the feasibility of developing a vaccination card or passport common to all EU citizens” between 2019 and 2021, so that the Commission can make a proposal to the Member States in 2022. The idea was that this document “take into account the national immunization schedules potentially different” and either “compatible” with the electronic information systems of the Member States, so that a map published in France can, for example, also be consulted in Germany. The header of the document states that it was last modified during the third quarter of 2019, between July and September. In other words: more than three months before the detection of the first case of Covid-19 in Wuhan, China.
This European project of “common vaccination card that can be shared electronically across borders” is not a secret. It appears in full in a press release from the European Commission, from April 2018. It is one of the 20 measures put forward, in order to “strengthen cooperation” between member states “in the fight against vaccine-preventable diseases”. The European Council, which brings together the member states, adopted a recommendation in December 2018 in favor of“enhanced cooperation against vaccine-preventable diseases”. This text pleaded for a harmonization of practices within the EU, some countries have made no vaccine mandatory or do not recommend the same number as others, as shown in this map drawn up by Science and the Future. A measure likely to make life easier for European citizens wishing, for example “continue their vaccination in the event of a change of country”, according to the Council.
The disease that worries the European Commission then is not Covid-19, but measles (and rubella, to a lesser extent). The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) is indeed alarmed at this time (report in English) the resurgence of measles in several EU countries. The CDC lists more than 5,000 cases in Romania and Italy, more than 900 in Greece or Germany. The majority of cases appear in unvaccinated people. In the countries concerned, the proportion of unvaccinated averages 72% among young adults aged 25-29, and even 96% among children under one year of age.. The Commission therefore pleads in favor of “national and / or regional vaccination plans” to improve measles immunization coverage. It is considering the possibility of vaccinating on a regular basis not only children at school, but also adults or in the workplace. In this context, she also imagines “routine checks of immunization status”.
This European vaccination card had even been the subject of a call for tenders. (in English) between August and October 2019 for an amount of 2.6 million euros, excluding VAT. It is not specified the name of the company which won it. The contract was for a feasibility study for such a device. It was about establishing “a mapping of existing vaccination cards” within the EU, then “test and evaluate” the proposed solutions. These must at the same time take into account “possibly different national immunization programs”, to be “compatible with information systems” member states, be “common to all Member States “ and finally be “usable from one country to another”. At none of the stages of reflection of this European vaccination card project, is there any mention of a mandatory, restrictive or restrictive nature, similar to that of the current French health pass or the vaccination pass desired by the government.
Faced with the successive waves of Covid-19 that will affect the continent over the months, the European Union will, on the other hand, decide to introduce the European certificate in mid-2021. This document attesting to a negative test or vaccination against Covid, which is not linked to the vaccination card, becomes necessary to travel within the EU from July 1 within the EU . As this chronology recalls, discussions between the European Commission and the Member States of the Union had formally started in November 2020 and the Parliament and the Council had given their agreement in May 2021.