Dutch attorney Meike Terhorst joined "The Defender In-Depth" this week to discuss the European Union's (EU) plans for a European Vaccination Card (EVC), the plan's similarities to the EU's Digital COVID Certificate, the global push toward digital ID and implications for health and medical freedom.

The EU, which pioneered the development of digital "vaccine passports," will next month launch a test run of its new EVC in five countries — Belgium, Germany, Greece, Latvia and Portugal.

The card purports to "foster informed decision-making on vaccination, and improve continuity of care across the EU" and "aims to empower individuals by consolidating all their vaccination data in one easily accessible location."

While the objectives of the program, set to be implemented throughout the EU by 2026, appear benign, critics argue the EVC is a stepping stone for mandatory vaccinations in the future.

Some also argue the EVC is connected to large financial interests and plans to limit personal and national sovereignty.

'The plan is to get everybody vaccinated'

For Terhorst, efforts to launch the EVC are, at their root, "about digital ID."

"You get a digital ID where all your vaccination records are stored … All your personal details are stored in one place, and you can move it easily from one country to another without having to redo or reapply … So basically, it's about a digital ID, and then a link from your personal ID to your medical records on vaccination," she said.

Terhorst said that while the idea of having one's medical records easily accessible and transferrable sounds benign, "The plan is to get everybody vaccinated and to kind of overrule constitutional rights."

"It was very clear that the object was that anybody within the EU could not say no to … vaccination," Terhorst said.

According to Terhorst, this contravenes the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which in Chapter 1, Article 3 — "Right to the integrity of the person" — encapsulates the key tenets of the Nuremberg Declaration.