The EC announced on Tuesday that the export authorisation scheme for PPE ceased to apply as of Tuesday, 26 May 2020. The EC has decided not to extend the measure, initially introduced on 15 March to ensure adequacy of supply of such products in the EU in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. This measure was initially extended for another month on 26 April, implementing additional reporting requirements and limiting the scope of the scheme to face masks.

According to the Commission, the scheme has served its purpose as a “temporary measure” and there have been no requests to prolong the scheme. The EC claims that the authorisation regime “struck the right balance between delivering on public health needs and securing open trade flows”. Approximately 1,300 export authorisations had been requested under the 26 April scheme with a 95% success rate. Also since 26 April, “more than 13 million protective masks, around 1 million protective garments and more than 350,000 protective masks and visors have been exported from the EU”.

Link to EC announcement: https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=2147