Brussels – Inaccessible contracts, information not shared, access to text messages impossible because many SMS would also have been destroyed. The ‘Pfizergate’ case explodes again on Ursula von der Leyen, linked to the contracts that the European Commission signed with the pharmaceutical company for the purchase of massive doses of anti-COVID vaccines to respond to the health crisis, after the EMA’s green light for the sale of the serum in the single market. A case, however, which seems to have been relaunched in terms of (counter) electoral campaign, given that the matter doesn’t seem entirely new, given that von der Leyen herself had already been dragged to court for the same reasons over a year ago.
The contracts between the community executive and the pharmaceutical companies have been criticized from the beginning by the European Parliament for the alleged lack of transparency on details and conditions. Also the ombudsman, already in January 2021, had opened a case against the von der Leyen team for the alleged lack of transparency in the management of the commercial negotiations.
What von der Leyen is accused of is the taking over of the file by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (Eppo), an event that would aggravate doubts about the conduct of the community executive. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office itself opened a case against the European Commission as early as October 2022, precisely due to the sensitivity of the moment, the figures at stake (billion-dollar contracts) and the complaints filed.
In essence, there don’t seem to be any truly new elements emerging in a story that isn’t current these days. The Commission is accused of waste amounting to 4 billion euros in vaccines purchased and then thrown away, of which however the Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, gave an account some time ago, explaining that the objective, in the moment of the health crisis, was the creation of stocks, and that this produced deliberately excess purchases to ensure that vaccination coverage was guaranteed in the EU. After that, the commissioner recalled, “gMember States are the legal owners of the purchased Covid-19 vaccines through (advance) purchase agreements concluded by the Commission on behalf of the Member States with vaccine producers”. As owners, “sThey are responsible for overseeing the management of their national stocks”, therefore administration campaigns and waste
The opposition forces are riding the wave. A question was presented by MEP Ioannis Lagos, belonging to the Greek ultra-right. It was to him that Kyriakides responded. Meanwhile the League attacks: “The investigation by the European prosecutor’s office on the so-called Pfizergate case confirms the seriousness of the matter, on which the League in Europe has asked for clarification from day one”, comment Marco Zanni and (president of the ID group) and Marco Campomenosi, respectively president of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group and head of the League delegation in the European Parliament.
The ‘Pfizergate’ affair therefore affects the outgoing president of the European Commission who is eager for a second mandate, but with elements that are certainly not new today. The case breaks into the electoral campaign that von der Leyen has in fact already started, and which could be affected by this attack, which is currently much more media-driven than anything else.
