Belgium's next Consultative Committee, which was initially set to take place this week, will be postponed to Friday 4 June, the cabinet of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced.
The week's delay will allow the authorities "to take sufficient account of the impact of the European agreement on the Digital Green Certificate" for travel within the EU during the pandemic.
Additionally, the Recommendation of the European Commission - which is expected to be published later this week - can also be taken into account when working out the Belgian modalities about the Certificate.
Walloon Minister-President Elio Di Rupo clarified on RTBF that the authorities "prefer to wait a few days to see things clearly."
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While the Belgian certificate will be "very comparable" to the European one, according to him, "there are still some uncertainties, especially on the health certificate," such as whether the certificate will be granted after one or two vaccine doses.
The postponement of the Committee does not change the rollout of the "Summer Plan" that was agreed on 11 May, and of which the first series of changes will take effect on 9 June.
"This has nothing to do with that," a spokesperson for De Croo told the Belga news agency, adding that the decision to postpone the meeting was made in consultation with the Regions.
On Thursday 20 May, the European Parliament and Council negotiators reached a provisional deal for a Digital Covid Certificate to facilitate free movement during the pandemic.
That agreement concerns the information that the certificate will contain, but does not say anything about the travel conditions, which will still be imposed by the individual Member States.
