EU to impose export restrictions on vaccines

On Friday, the European Commission is set to decide on a "transparency and authorization mechanism for the export of vaccines" from the EU after vaccine manufacturers had to reduce vaccine supply for EU countries.

"Any exporting company would send into the national authorities their plan what to export, when, to whom and so on, and what amount, and the national authorities will then be allowed to check that and to give an authorization or a refusal. That, of course, has to happen very quickly, so it's a question not of weeks, but the question of hours." one EU official said.

Another official told reporters that the EU is "not proposing to impose an export ban" but rather plans to "monitor how the funds that we paid from the EU budget have been used and how the advanced purchase agreements that we concluded with pharmaceutical companies are producing vaccines for our citizens."