Mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations have just been passed “under the radar” by the European Council.
This is based on a misreading of a resolution passed by a completely different organisation. The resolution explicitly states citizens should be informed that vaccines aren’t mandatory.
A post on Facebook claims: “Mandatory Vaccination for the EU Just Went Through Under the Radar”.
The post adds that the “European Council has amended resolution 2361 and no longer objects to compulsory vaccination.”
It is also claimed that “digital currency” and “digital ID” will be imposed “on every EU citizen”, with cash machines being replaced by “QR code ATMs… to make cash completely worthless within 18 months.”
This is false.
The author of the Facebook post links to an article, headlined “Digital Tyranny: The EU Digital Covid Vaccine Certificate Framework”, but the article does not appear to support the points made in the text of the Facebook post.
In fact the page states that it previously “mistakenly referred to a European Council Amendment of Resolution 2361 which ‘no longer objects to compulsory vaccination’.”
An archived version of the page, captured by Wayback Machine on 3 April, shows that the article was previously headlined “Mandatory Vaccination for the EU Just Went Through Under the Radar” and featured eight bullet points which exactly mirror the claims made in the Facebook post.
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As noted in the updated article (but not in the Facebook post), it is incorrect to claim that the European Council has amended Resolution 2361.
Firstly, Resolution 2361 was not passed by the European Council, a group consisting of heads of state or government of countries in the European Union (EU) which defines the general policy direction and priorities of the EU.
Resolution 2361 was actually passed more than a year ago by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), an entirely different organisation to the European Council.
The Council of Europe is a human rights organisation which counts 46 European countries as members, including all 27 members of the EU.
Resolution 2361 sets out how member states can work towards equal distribution of Covid-19 vaccines and ensure their rollout as quickly as possible whilst maintaining public confidence in their safety.
There is no reference in the resolution to removing objections to mandatory vaccinations. In fact, section 7.3.1 states that member states of PACE and the EU should “ensure that citizens are informed that the vaccination is not mandatory and that no one is under political, social or other pressure to be vaccinated if they do not wish to do so.”
The resolution also makes no mention of digital currency, cash or QR codes, and there is no clear source for this claim on Facebook. The archived version of the article shared on Facebook attributes its claims to a message on Gmail “from a very reliable source”, but no further information is provided and this is omitted from the updated article.
An EU official confirmed to Reuters: “There is a confusion as the resolution comes from another institution, not an EU institution. It comes from the Council of Europe – the human rights organisation, which is different from the European Council bringing together the EU’s 27 leaders.”
The official added that “There has not been any reference to mandatory vaccinations” within the European Council.
However, on 1 December 2021, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen did say it was time for the EU to “think about mandatory vaccination”. And some countries within the EU currently have or previously had forms of vaccine mandate.
Image courtesy of Daniel Schludi
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the post references a misreading of a resolution passed by a completely different organisation to the European Council.
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