The European Commission has removed Norway from the list of countries exempt from vaccine export control regulations.
Norway and 16 other countries are currently under the export controls that the EU has put in place on COVID-19 vaccines.
At the same time, the European Commission is tightening export regulations.
The new rules stipulate that Member States and the European Commission must take into account two new issues when exporting vaccines:
- Reciprocity: Does the recipient country have its own export restrictions for vaccines?
- Proportionality: are the conditions in the recipient country better or worse than in the EU?
The background to the tightening is what the EU sees as an unfair distribution of vaccine doses between the EU and the UK. While the EU itself allowed ten million doses to be exported to the UK, the EU received nothing in return.
Read our next article: Will there be privileges for those vaccinated in Norway?
With Norway and 16 other countries now also under export controls, the European Commission believes that a more complete picture of the vaccine trade is needed.
Søreide ensures: - Vaccine exports to Norway will continue
Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide (H) received confirmation from the European Commission. Export of vaccines to Norway will continue unchanged.
The statement came after the European Commission removed it on Wednesday Norway off the list countries exempt from EU regulations on export control of vaccines against covid-19. Norway and 16 other countries are currently subject to export controls that the EU has introduced for COVID-19 vaccines.
