The European Commission was wrong to conceal details of its multi-billion euro Covid vaccine contracts, an EU court has ruled, in a blow to Ursula von der Leyen.
Von der Leyen is due to appear before the European Parliament on Thursday to secure her nomination for a second term as EU executive, but the court ruling is likely to rekindle concerns over how she secured vaccines for the bloc.
She was already under fire for allegedly keeping secret and deleting text messages with Pfizer’s boss about vaccine purchases in a controversy dubbed “Deletegate.”
Wednesday’s court ruling is separate from that case, but the timing is awkward for von der Leyen, who will miss Thursday’s European Union summit in the UK to attend the vote in Strasbourg, and is working to secure support for another five years at the helm of the Commission.
Green MEPs had demanded that the Commission publish the Covid vaccine procurement deals worth just under £2.3bn that it negotiated in 2020-21.
Brussels published the agreements but redacted parts of them, including the names of the EU officials responsible for negotiating them. It argued that releasing those obscured details would jeopardize business relationships with pharmaceutical companies, including over liability and compensation if the vaccines fail.
The commission also argued that it must keep confidential the identities and words used by members of its team who negotiated the agreements.
A legal battle ensued, culminating in Wednesday’s ruling.
Commission failed ‘public interest’ test by keeping names secret
The European Union General Court said the Commission had failed to demonstrate how disclosing the details of the compensation would harm the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical groups supplying the vaccines.
The court also said the case had failed the “public interest” test by keeping secret the names of the EU officials involved.
The court upheld “in part” the appeals filed by those seeking access to this information “and annuls the Commission’s decisions to the extent that they contain irregularities.”
“The Commission has not demonstrated that wider access to these clauses would actually harm the commercial interests of these companies,” the court said.
It also found that the individuals behind the complaint had demonstrated a public interest in having access to the personal data of the commission’s vaccine negotiating team.
“It was only by having the names, surnames and details of the professional or institutional role of the members of the team in question that they could have determined whether or not the members of that team had a conflict of interest,” the court added.
The Commission has already been criticised by the watchdog
The Commission has until the end of September to lodge an appeal with the Court of Justice of the European Union if it wishes to challenge the General Court’s decision.
The commission said it would “carefully study” the court’s decision.
The decision “only partially upheld the lawsuit on two counts” and the court “follows the Commission on many claims,” he said.
She argued that she “had to strike a difficult balance between the public’s right… to information and the legal requirements arising from the Covid-19 contracts themselves, which could give rise to claims for damages at the expense of taxpayers’ money”.
“At this stage, the Commission reserves its legal options,” she said.
In 2022, the Commission said it could not and did not have to find the text messages that Ms von der Leyen exchanged with Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chief executive, during the pandemic.
The existence of the messages was revealed during a New York Times investigation.
The Commission refused a request for access to information regarding these messages, which led to a complaint to the European Ombudsman.
In a damning report, the watchdog said it amounted to maladministration.
Expand your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
