The entrance to the Constitutional Council (illustrative image). – BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
The Constitutional Council validated on Monday the controversial government “health pass” project provided for by law governing the gradual exit from the state of health emergency. The “health pass” will be limited to large gatherings, such as festivals, and subject to a series of measures limiting attacks on individual freedoms. It will condition access to major events, more than 1,000 people according to the government’s plan, on presentation of a negative coronavirus screening result, proof of vaccination or even a certificate of recovery after contamination.
The “Sages” had been seized by the deputies of the left (GDR, LFI, SOC), judging that the bill gave “very important powers to the government on bases much too vague and imprecise”. “By reserving the application of the contested provisions to cases of large gatherings of people, the legislator, who did not have to determine a minimum quantified threshold, did not ignore the extent of his competence”, underlines the Council in a communicated.
No policy
The latter considers that the notion of leisure activity to which the pass is restricted, “is neither imprecise nor ambiguous” and “notably excludes political, trade union or religious activity”. The Constitutional Council has given a green light to this entire law, which organizes the transitional regime of the state of health emergency, in a context of the decline of the Covid-19 epidemic and the acceleration of vaccination.
The text provides a legal framework for the deconfinement measures announced by the executive, without lowering our guard against the hypothesis of an epidemic resumption. It will end on September 30, and not the end of October as the executive had wished.
Interpretation reservation
The “wise men of the rue Montpensier” have however accompanied one of the measures of the text which must apply from the beginning of June, “with an interpretation reserve”. This involves the integration into the national health data system of data collected as part of the information systems implemented to fight the epidemic, like TousAntiCovid.
The Constitutional Council judges that to avoid grievances on respect for the right to privacy, the authorities must exclude the telephone or electronic contact details of those concerned from the national health data system. This does not already contain the names and surnames of individuals, their registration number in the national identification directory of natural persons, or their address.