Brussels, July 18, 2024, The Europe Today: In a landmark ruling, the EU’s second-highest judicial body, the General Court, has determined that the European Commission failed to exhibit sufficient transparency in its COVID-19 vaccine agreements with pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and AstraZeneca. The court declared that the Commission had no legitimate reasons to withhold certain details of these contracts.
The ruling pertains to purchase agreements made by the Commission in 2020 and 2021, during the height of the pandemic, amounting to approximately €2.7 billion ($2.95 billion). According to the court’s statement published on Wednesday, the decision responds to concerns raised by some Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in 2021 regarding the protection of public interest and the potential for conflicts of interest among the EU negotiating team.
The Commission did not give the public sufficiently wide access to the purchase agreements for COVID-19 vaccines
Despite requests from MEPs for full access to the documents to ensure transparency and accountability, Brussels only provided redacted versions and refused to disclose the identities of the negotiating team members. The Commission justified its actions by citing the need to protect commercial interests and the integrity of the decision-making process. Dissatisfied with this response, the MEPs escalated the matter to the General Court.
“The Commission did not give the public sufficiently wide access to the purchase agreements for COVID-19 vaccines,” the court stated. “The Commission did not demonstrate that wider access to those clauses would actually undermine the commercial interests of those undertakings.”
The court further criticized the Commission for not adequately considering all relevant circumstances, particularly concerning the absence of conflicts of interest and potential infringements on the privacy rights of the involved individuals. The ruling partially upheld two cases against Brussels and annulled the Commission’s decisions to withhold the data, citing irregularities in those decisions.
The judgement arrives just two days before a crucial European Parliament vote on Ursula von der Leyen’s bid for a second term as President of the European Commission. Previously, text messages between von der Leyen and the Pfizer CEO regarding one of the contracts had been a contentious issue, with lawmakers demanding access to them. Brussels claimed these messages had not been retained.
In response to the court’s ruling, the Commission stated, “In general, the Commission grants the widest possible public access to documents, in line with the principles of openness and transparency,” noting that the court “only partially upheld the legal action on two points” and affirmed that the Commission was entitled to provide only partial access.
The Commission announced that it would “carefully study” the decision and “reserves its legal options,” indicating a possible appeal to the European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest judicial authority.
