EU to control COVID-19 vaccine export

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - The European Union will adopt on Friday an export control mechanism on vaccines produced in EU countries, senior EU officials told Anadolu Agency.

Under the new rules, before giving export authorization for COVID-19 jabs, EU states will have to verify at the European Commission if a pharmaceutical company based on its contract timely delivered the vaccines within the bloc.

As usual, vaccine companies will first have to apply for the given country’s customs authority for an export permit.

The authority will then consult the European Commission if the firm has produced and shipped the required amount of vaccines based on their purchase agreement with the EU body.

The permit process will be completed within 24 hours.

If the company has not delivered the promised amount of vaccines to EU states, the European Commission will restrict the export of products to other countries.

“This is not about export ban, it’s about monitoring and transparency,” an EU official said.

“We owe it not only to the patients in Europe or the population in Europe who expects the vaccination to come, but also to the taxpayers because we invested heavily in these advanced purchase agreements,” the bureaucrat added.

The export control mechanism will be applied in the first quarter of the year with a possibility for extension.

Only vaccine shipments for humanitarian purposes can be exported without any restrictions.

The European Commission also mulls to control the export of raw materials needed for vaccine production.

The decision came after a spat between the EU and AstraZeneca because the company announced delays of vaccine shipments to the EU although it was delivering jabs to the UK.

The EU, which has a population of 450 million, made agreements with six vaccine producers -- Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, CureVac, Johnson&Johnson, and Sanofi/GlaxoSmithKline -- to buy about 2.3 billion vaccine doses.

The bloc contributed financially to the research to develop the jabs.

In a new strategy revealed on Tuesday, the European Commission suggested EU member states to speed up the vaccination campaigns to immunize at least 70% of the adult population by summer.