Covid, the EU’s “gate vaccine” and von der Leyen is now in trouble

The “Pfizer gate” risks overwhelming Ursula von der Leyen a few months before the elections on 9 June. The European Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the text messages that the number one at Palazzo Berlaymont exchanged with the CEO of Pfizer Albert Bourla in the first months of 2021, personally negotiating the purchase of 1.8 billion doses of vaccine against Covid . A bad situation for Ursula who has well-founded hopes of being confirmed at the helm of the EU Commission for the next five years too. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is an independent body of the European Union operational since 2021 and responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to justice crimes affecting the financial interests of the EU. The existence of this investigation was revealed by the Politico.eu website, according to which no one is yet under investigation in relation to the Pfizer vaccines case. The Liège prosecutor’s office was the first to investigate, aiming to investigate alleged “interference in public functions, destruction of text messages, corruption and conflict of interest”. It all started with a complaint last year presented by local lobbyist Frederic Baldan, to which were added two other complaints from the Hungarian and Polish governments. The latter, however, after the election of Donald Tusk last December, seems to be preparing to withdraw the complaint. Both countries, Hungary and Poland, are being sued by Pfizer for missed payments for vaccine doses after it halted deliveries, citing oversupply and financial strain caused by the war in Ukraine.

However, the case was first broken by the New York Times in April 2021. The Big Apple newspaper also sued von der Leyen for not making the contents of those messages public following a request document access officer. It has never been clarified what they said to each other and how much this exchange of messages influenced the price negotiation. And, above all, whether this correspondence has given the American multinational an advantage over its competition. So much so that now the European Public Prosecutor’s Office could even seize the mobile phones of those directly involved. Emblematic in this whole story is what happened in 2022, when the European Union Ombudsman Emily O’ Reilly also took action, determined to make public the contents of the text messages between von der Leyen and Bourla. The Commission initially resisted, then in June two years ago it decided to respond. An answer that left O’Reilly literally stunned: “Those messages can no longer be found.” They disappeared, evaporated. For the community executive “there has never been any recording of such messages”. It is not clear whether the president canceled them. The fact is that it would no longer be possible to recover them. The Commission’s explanation, obviously, did not satisfy the Ombudsman, who branded this lack of transparency as “bad administration”.

Numerous questions from League MEPs have also been asked over the months. But, even in this case, the truth continues to remain shrouded in a thick blanket of fog. As Politico.eu points out, the news that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is now investigating the case risks subjecting the Commission President’s role in the mega vaccine deal which, overall, would be worth over 20 billion euros to further scrutiny. Not to mention possible waste. Suffice it to say that as many as 4 billion doses would have been left over. The Politico website reports that it also asked von der Leyen a direct question via post. The response was lapidary: «Everything necessary on the matter has been said and exchanged. We will wait for the results.” Confirming the total desire not to publicly address the issue and thus fueling the suspicions of those who believe that the “direct” von der Leyen-Bourla negotiation was at least not correct.