French senators reject restaurant ID checks amid debate over vaccine pass

French senators examining a bill to transform the country’s Covid health pass to a vaccine pass have struck down a measure that would allow restaurant and bar owners to ask their customers for ID checks.

French MPs want managers of public venues to be given the authority, like police, to carry out identity checks if there is reason to believe a person's vaccine pass is not authentic. AFP - BERTRAND GUAY

The upper house, under rightwing control, also plans to limit the vaccination pass, which gives people access to public venues, to people aged over 18 years.

Minors aged 12 to 17 would still be required to present a health pass, however.

Senators are hoping to establish a threshold that would automatically render the vaccine pass unnecessary if Covid-related hospitalisations drop to below 10,000.

Right now that numbers stands at more than 23,000.

An amendment was also adopted to introduce proportional capacity in stadiums and auditoriums, instead of the 5,000 spectators now allowed, regardless of the capacity of the venue. 

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Debates on the controversial issue has been much calmer in the Senate than the government-controlled National Assembly, where a vote was suspended twice in one week amid feuding.

Most lawmakers are pushing for managers of public venues to be given the authority, alongside police, to carry out identity checks if there is a serious reason to believe the vaccine pass being presented is not authentic.

Although senators dismantled the most sensitive points contained in the bill, MPs will be able to reinstate them when the it returns to the National Assembly this week.