In a European Committee of the Regions' plenary debate on recovery in the tourism sector, ECR Vice-President Marco Marsilio outlined that the recently proposed COVID-19 certificate (Digital Green Certificate) by the European Commission will help to ensure safe travel this summer but calls for fundamental rights to be respected. Mr Marsilio, who also serves as President of the Abruzzo Region, said that the "certificate will give the tourism sector the boost it needs to recover whilst respecting the health and safety of citizens".

​For him, he views it as a means to give tourists "greater confidence in their choice of destination" as travellers are unlikely to travel to countries that are characterised by a low vaccination rate and a high epidemiological incidence, i.e. countries where curfews are still imposed. However, the ECR Vice-President called for the certificates to be "non-discriminatory", and gave the example of people who cannot get vaccinated because of health reasons – these people should still be able to travel and access basic services provided they have a recent valid COVID-19 test and such tests should be "easily accessible and available to all", he urged.

Along with an acceleration of the vaccination campaign Marco Marsilio is convinced that the certificates are a good first step to ensure we do not lose tourist flows – the tourism sector having been one of the most hard hit sectors by the pandemic – and underlined the "crucial importance to have it up and running by the summer".

Mr Marsilio concluded his intervention in the debate on recovery in the tourism sector by referring to the services directive otherwise known as the Bolkestein directive with regards to seaside businesses in Italy: "I believe that seaside businesses should be protected – in Italy they are heavily penalised by the services directive. Our beaches are goods and not services. This sector should be excluded from the scope of this directive for once and for all", he emphasized.