Important updates on the so-called Pfizergatethe investigation that shines the spotlight on negotiations for the anti-Covid vaccines between the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer. The investigation is no longer in the hands of the Belgian prosecutors, but has been passed to the investigators of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (Eppo). According to what was announced by PoliticEU prosecutors are investigating alleged crimes: the hypotheses are interference in public functions, destruction of text messages, corruption and conflict of interest.
The investigation was opened by the judicial authorities of Liège at the beginning of 2023 following the complaint presented by the lobbyist Frédéric Baldan. Subsequently, the Hungarian and Polish governments joined, although the latter seems about to withdraw the complaint after the election victory of pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The complaint centered on an alleged exchange of messages between von der Leyen and Pfizer boss Albert Bourla initially exposed by New York Times (who sued Berlin’s former defense minister). The EU Commission has always refused to disclose the content of the messages that allowed the purchase of 1.8 billion doses of anti-Covid vaccine for a total of 20 billion euros.
European prosecutors have the power to seize phones or other relevant material from the offices of the EU Commission or in other countries, just think of Germany. We recall that the Commission has so far always refused to reveal the contents of the text messages or even to confirm their existence. The agreement under scrutiny, negotiated at the height of the pandemic in 2021, was seen as a triumph for von der Leyen, but it raised more than a few eyebrows quantity of doses purchased: at the end of 2023 the value of the leftover Pfizer vaccine doses was at least 4 billion euros. The contract has since been renegotiated.
Updates will follow, but the situation remains delicate for von der Leyen, called to a hot electoral campaign to obtain the second mandate at the helm of the European government.
