The European Commission has implemented an export ban on some coronavirus vaccines, it has been announced.

Executive vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis told a Brussels press conference: ‘Today the commission has adopted an implementing regulation making the export of certain products subject to an export authorisation.

‘This regulation concerns the transparency and export of Covid-19 vaccines.’

The UK was not named among countries exempted from the new measures.

It comes amid a deepening row between the EU and AstraZeneca over vaccine supply shortages in the bloc.

The EU wants doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to be sent from British plants to solve its vaccine supply shortage issues, after member states were forced to pause or delay rollout.

Preventing vaccines made within the bloc from being exported could damage the UK’s access to further supplies, particularly to the Belgian-made Pfizer jab.

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca published a redacted version of its contract with the EU, which the bloc said was important for ‘accountability’.

The contract mentions that the firm would use “best reasonable efforts” to use European plants, including two in the UK, as production sites for vaccines destined for the EU.

Earlier on Friday the Prime Minister’s official spokesman, asked about the prospect of a block on vaccines heading to Britain, said the Government remained confident in its vaccine supply, adding: “EU policy is a matter for them.”

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