Editor’s Note: The following is the full text of the “Opening remarks by Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis at the press conference on the transparency and authorization mechanism for exports of COVID-19 vaccines” on Jan. 29, 2021.
(Also see: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_21_312)
“Today the Commission has adopted an implementing Regulation making the export of certain products subject to an export authorisation.
So this Regulation concerns the transparency and export of COVID-19 vaccines.
The protection and safety of our citizens is our priority. And the challenges we now face have left us with no other choice but to act.
Vaccines are key to the recovery and to bringing the pandemic under control. And delivering these to our citizens is the most critical task right now.
This is a race against the clock. We cannot lose time because vaccines not being delivered on the agreed schedule.
To achieve this, we need to ensure that all Advanced Purchase Agreements for vaccines made by the European Union are honoured. We paid these companies to increase production – and now we expect them to deliver.
Today’s measure has been adopted with the utmost urgency.
The aim is to provide us immediately with full transparency – transparency that until now has been lacking and which Europeans expect. If needed, it will also provide with the tool to ensure vaccine deliveries.
The Commission has adopted a strictly targeted measure that will allow us to gather accurate information about the production of vaccines, and where manufacturers intend to ship them.
The measure is time limited and specifically applies only to those COVID-19 vaccines that were agreed by Advanced Purchase Agreements. This measure is intended to run until the end of March.
We have been very mindful of fully honouring our humanitarian commitments and ensuring to supply to the many countries around the globe that depend on the European Union. These countries will be exempted. We will keep our pledges.
The countries include our neighbourhood and those low and low-middle income countries covered by the COVAX-facility.
We had to design this mechanism to bring transparency – but also to avoid fragmentation within our internal market.
We need to be efficient and ensure vaccines reach people across the EU. This means we need to act together and in a coordinated way.
The Commission will be fully involved, along with our Member States.
In line with international trade rules, we will notify the World Trade Organization of this measure.”
(Speech from EU European Commission website: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_21_312)