new delhi as many as 16 european countries are yet to recognise indias covishield for inclusion in the eu green pass which allows entry to travelers amid the covid pandemicthis even as india has already asked eu member countries to individually consider allowing indians who have taken covishield and covaxin vaccines and want to travel to europecovishield has not yet been approved by france italy croatia cyprus czechia denmark estonia lithuania lichtenstein luxembourg malta norway poland portugal romania and slovakia 14 of these are eu members while norway and lichtenstein are nonmember stateson the other hand 13 eu members have said they will allow people inoculated with covishield to travel to their countries these are belgium austria bulgaria estonia finland germany greece hungary ireland latvia netherlands slovenia spain swedenswitzerland and iceland which are not part of the bloc have also accepted covishield as schengen statethe eu green pass is in use in 31 european countries 27 members of eu bloc and 4 nonmembersreciprocal policyearlier india had conveyed to the eu member states that it will adopt a policy of reciprocity and exempt european nationals holding the green pass from mandatory quarantine in the country provided its request to recognise covishield and covaxin vaccines is heeded toindia has been urging eu members to recognise both covishield and covaxin for travel amid concerns that citizens inoculated with either of these vaccines wont be able to travel to several european nation amid pandemic restrictionsour expectation is that indians who have been vaccinated through our domestic vaccination programme would be treated at par with those vaccinated in the eu and the cowin vaccination certificate would be recognized by the eu on a reciprocal basis ministry of external affairs spokesperson arindam bagchi had said earlier this montheu green passthe european unions digital covid certificate or green pass came into effect on july 1 with an aim to facilitate hasslefree movement of travelers amid virus restrictions under this framework people who have taken vaccines authorised by the european medicines agency ema will be exempted from travel restrictions within the eu regionthe green pass will be mandatory to travel to european countries and the document will serve as proof that a person is vaccinated against covid19the individual member states have the flexibility to also accept vaccines that have been authorised at the national level or those recognised by the world health organisation whothe four emaapproved vaccines included in the green pass are pfizerbiontech moderna astrazeneca and johnson johnsonwho nod to covaxin soonmeanwhile the world health organization who is likely to take a decision on including bharat biotechs covaxin in the emergency use list eul within four to six weeks soumya swaminathan the global health bodys chief scientist has saidswaminathan said the who is reviewing covaxin as its manufacturer bharat biotech is now uploading its entire data on the health bodys portalaccording to who guidelines eul is a procedure to streamline the process by which new or unlicensed products can be used during public health emergenciescurrently the