The European Court of Justice will hear a case on November 15 concerning European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen’s handling of Covid-19 vaccine procurement, the Financial Times has said, citing anonymous sources. A panel of 15 judges will reportedly consider whether she illegally withheld private text messages she supposedly exchanged with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
At the height of the pandemic, the commission advocated collectively purchasing billions of shots and distributing them among EU member states struggling to contain Covid-19. In 2020 and 2021, Brussels struck deals with vaccine manufacturers to the tune of approximately €2.7 billion ($2.95 billion).
It is believed that Von der Leyen played a key role in organizing the procurement, with critics claiming the negotiations were not transparent enough.
In its article on Monday, the Financial Times noted that the EU court’s Grand Chamber, which is reportedly going to weigh the evidence, usually deals with complex or particularly important cases.
Back in January 2023, the New York Times sued the European Commission after the latter claimed not to have Von der Leyen’s alleged text messages, which the US newspaper had asked for as part of a freedom of information request.
According to the outlet, Bourla confirmed that he and Von der Leyen had indeed exchanged private messages, and that the European Commission president had told him she was personally involved in negotiating the vaccine purchase contracts.
While the NYT has insisted on the publication of the purported communications, Von der Leyen claims that she deleted most of the exchange with Bourla.
Next month, the EU court is expected to ask the commission’s representatives whether the messages at the heart of the case ever existed, and if so, whether and why they were later destroyed, FT reported on Monday.
In a separate case in mid-July, the EU’s general court ruled that the Commission had concealed details of multibillion-euro Covid vaccine deals with Pfizer and AstraZeneca without a legitimate reason. In 2021, a group of MEPs requested access to the relevant documents to make sure that the public interest had been protected and the members of the EU negotiating team had no conflict of interest.
The Commission only agreed to release a redacted version and refused to reveal the identities of the negotiating team’s members. The lawmakers subsequently took the issue to court.