Court verdicts on von der Leyen’s private Covid vaccine agreement texts
(MENAFN) The European Commission (EC) acted improperly by denying journalists access to text messages exchanged between its president, Ursula von der Leyen, and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during COVID-19 vaccine negotiations, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Wednesday.
The controversy, often referred to as “Pfizergate,” stems from a 2021 interview in which von der Leyen revealed she had personally exchanged SMS messages with Bourla while arranging a deal for 900 million vaccine doses. Following this, the New York Times submitted a request to access the messages, but the EC responded that it did not possess them.
The court found that the EC’s explanation was insufficient, stating the Commission must provide a credible account as to why the texts are missing, and must explain their deletion or lack of preservation. The judges criticized the institution’s failure to properly document the messages or justify their absence.
In reaction to the ruling, the Commission acknowledged the importance of transparency and pledged to issue a new decision with clearer reasoning, though it stopped short of promising to release the actual texts. The judgment can be appealed to a higher court.
This decision follows a similar CJEU ruling in 2023, which faulted the Commission for a lack of transparency in its vaccine contract negotiations with Pfizer and AstraZeneca. The deals, worth around €2.7 billion, were not fully disclosed to EU lawmakers, citing protection of commercial interests.
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