The European Union Court has ruled today that the European Commission erred in its decision to deny journalists access to text messages exchanged between President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at the height of the pandemic.
According to the Court’s reasoning, the purpose of the regulation on access to documents is to give the fullest possible practical effect to the public’s right of access to documents held by institutions.
Therefore, as a general rule, the public should be given access to all documents of the institutions.
The history of the von der Leyen-Bourla messages dates back to spring 2020, when Donald Trump initiated a “global race” to lift pandemic restrictions.
The European Union was unprepared, lacking necessary administrative structures and legal tools to proceed similarly in the race to lift lockdowns.
Health policy, including vaccine procurement, was and remains the responsibility of EU member states, not the European Commission. However, the pandemic changed everything.
The Commission warned that if each EU member state proceeded alone in purchasing vaccines, wealthier countries would have access to more doses, triggering competition within the EU.
In summer 2020, member states agreed to task the Commission with making agreements with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of the entire EU.
By December 2020, the situation in the EU seemed almost desperate. The first Pfizer vaccines were circulating in the United Kingdom, followed by those from Moderna and AstraZeneca, while the vaccines procured by the Commission were insufficient for member states.
During this period, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen developed a special, personal relationship with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. In January 2021, the Commission confirmed revision of the contract with Pfizer to double the number of doses for the EU to fill the gap left by AstraZeneca.
Pfizer also had significant production capacity in the EU and collaborated with German company BioNTech, which developed the revolutionary mRNA technology.
Bourla himself told the New York Times that he communicated with President von der Leyen via telephone and text messages.
In 2021, journalist Alexander Fanta filed a request to gain access to these SMS messages. The Commission refused.
In September of the same year, European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly launched an investigation into maladministration. Faced with the Commission’s continued refusal, the European Ombudsman closed the investigation in July 2022, harshly criticising the Commission.
Subsequently, New York Times journalist Matina Stevis also requested access to the text messages and eventually appealed to the EU Court against the European Commission.
For a long time, the Commission would not even admit that messages existed between President von der Leyen and Bourla.
Eventually, the Commission’s legal team argued that it never denied the existence of messages, but characterised them as insignificant and therefore not considered official documents under the Commission’s internal regulations.
The EU Court’s decision does not concern President von der Leyen’s handling of vaccine procurement, which even her harshest critics consider successful, but rather the issue of transparency and EU citizens’ access to public documents.
(information from protothema.gr)
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