The European Union has activated cross-border functionality for an initial group of COVID-19 contact tracing applications. These apps utilize Bluetooth technology to assess the potential exposure risk for smartphone users, following a trial period conducted last month.

The national applications now connected through this gateway service include Germany’s Corona-Warn-App, Ireland’s COVID Tracker, and Italy’s Immuni app.

This integration ensures that a user of one of these applications, while traveling to another participating country, will receive relevant exposure alerts as they would within their home country – all without requiring any additional downloads.

To date, these three national COVID-19 applications have collectively been downloaded approximately 30 million times, representing two-thirds of all such downloads within the EU, according to the EU’s reports.

A second group of national applications is scheduled for integration next week, following a testing phase. This includes Czechia’s eRouška, Denmark’s Smitte|stop, Latvia’s Apturi COVID, and Spain’s Radar Covid; however, the latter is not yet fully operational across all of Spain, as the Catalonia region has not yet integrated it with its healthcare infrastructure. Further compatible applications are planned for release in November.

The gateway is initially designed to function with official coronavirus applications that employ a decentralized architecture. Consequently, applications utilizing a centralized architecture, such as France’s StopCovid app, are currently not supported.

The United Kingdom’s suite of applications – for England & Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland – are unlikely to be connected, despite possessing a technically compatible app structure, as the country is set to leave the EU at the year’s end. (Interoperability would therefore necessitate a separate agreement between the U.K. and the EU.)

“Roughly two-thirds of EU Member States have developed compatible tracing and warning applications, and the gateway is accessible to all of them once they are prepared to connect. The connection process will unfold gradually throughout October and November, although applications can also connect at a later date if national authorities choose. A specific ‘onboarding protocol’ has been established, outlining the required procedures,” the Commission explains in a question-and-answer document.

The cross-border system for EU applications operates through a gateway server, developed and established by T-Systems and SAP, and managed from the Commission’s data center in Luxembourg. This server receives and transmits anonymous identifiers between national applications.

“The gateway will only handle arbitrary keys generated by the applications. All information is anonymized, encrypted, minimized, and stored only as long as necessary for contact tracing. It does not enable the identification of individuals, nor does it track the location or movement of devices,” the EU clarifies in a press statement.

Successfully implementing a cross-border system across a diverse range of national COVID-19 applications in a short timeframe represents a significant accomplishment for the EU, despite ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness of Bluetooth-based coronavirus exposure notifications in controlling the spread of the virus – particularly as much of Europe is now experiencing a resurgence of the pandemic.

However, EU officials indicated today that these applications can serve as a valuable addition to other strategies, such as traditional manual contact tracing.

In a statement, Stella Kyriakides, EU commissioner for health and food safety, stated: “Coronavirus tracing and warning applications can effectively enhance other measures like increased testing and manual contact tracing. As cases are increasing again, they can play a crucial role in helping us interrupt transmission chains. When functioning across borders, these applications become even more powerful tools. The launch of our gateway system today is an important step forward, and I encourage citizens to utilize these applications to help protect one another.”

“Free movement is a fundamental aspect of the Single Market – the gateway facilitates this while simultaneously helping to save lives,” added Thierry Breton, commissioner for the internal market.