EU sets coronavirus vaccine export controls

11:58, 30.01.2021

The European Commission said on Friday that it had agreed on a plan to control exports of vaccines from the European Union, including to the United Kingdom, arguing it needed to do so to ensure its own supplies.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference the export monitoring and controls were “time limited”, initially lasting until the end of March, and applied to COVID-19 vaccines the EU had bought in advance, Al Jazeera reported.

Donations to the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (COVAX), designed for poorer countries, will be exempted, as will a large number of EU neighbours, including Norway, Switzerland and countries of the western Balkans and North Africa. However, the UK will not be exempted.

The measure, likely to take effect on Saturday, has already come under criticism, seen as a repeat of criticised controls of protective equipment such as masks at the start of the pandemic.

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