EU Commission can put brakes on vaccine exports

EU leaders have agreed to allow the EU Commissioin to put the brakes on vaccine exports.

On Thursday, the European Council gave the Commission freedom to exercise a mechanism to authorise the export of vaccine doses outside Europe before shipment.

In their statement after the European Council on Thursday evening, the Council emphasised “the importance of transparency as well as of the use of export authorisations” for countries outside the EU. From now on, all 27 Member States must ask for authorisation by the Commission for these exports.

On Wednesday,  the Commission tightened up the mechanism including new criteria which could deny export to countries that have already ensured a certain vaccination rate, if it is higher than the one in the EU.

“We want to make sure that Europe gets its fair share of vaccines because we must be able to explain to our citizens that if companies export their vaccines to the whole world, it is because they are fully honouring their commitments without putting at risk the security of supply in the EU,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a press conference.

“Our track record speaks for itself. Since the start of the mechanism on February 1, more than 380 export requests have been made, and only one has been stopped,” von der Leyen pointed out.

She reiterated the fact that the UK has not shared the same figures on exports. The Commission has said that there have been no exports from the UK to Europe thus far. Von der Leyen demanded that the UK provide reciprocity for vaccine exports in the future.