The EU will monitor exports from Saturday

Brussels. The export of Corona vaccines produced in the EU will be strictly monitored this Saturday. Pharmaceutical companies that have also concluded delivery contracts with the EU will have to apply for an export permit according to a regulation submitted on Friday. If manufacturers are illegal to the EU in relation to the delivery quantities, the permits could be refused.

"The aim is to create more clarity about vaccine production in the EU and exports," said Vice President of the EU Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, on Friday afternoon in Brussels. This transparency is currently missing, but is indispensable.

Dombrovskis also emphasized that not all exports have to be approved. Exports to a number of partner countries and developing countries are excluded. The partner countries include, for example, Switzerland, Israel and Ukraine - but not Great Britain.

The new system was planned after the pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca announced that it was initially guaranteed to deliver fewer vaccines to the EU. It is assumed that vaccines manufactured in the EU were delivered to third countries.

The WHO criticizes export restrictions

The EU member state, in which the vaccines intended for export were manufactured, is responsible for export permits. The EU Commission will only submit non-binding declarations on the approval applications.

The World Health Organization (WHO) criticized export restrictions. "This is a worrying trend," said Marianangela Simao, who is responsible for medication and vaccines, in Geneva on Friday. "This is not good for public health or for any country." In many cases, components of vaccines come from several countries. Such restrictions could ultimately bring disadvantages for all countries.

The vaccines have to be distributed quite worldwide, said WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "Vaccination nationalism can serve short-term political goals. But that is short-sighted and fails." Pandemic must be combated everywhere at the same time. " When a village is on fire, a small group makes no sense to hoard all fire extinguishers to protect their own houses. The fire is deleted faster if everyone has one fire extinguisher and all work together. "