“Court Slams EU Over Secret Vaccine Texts With Pfizer CEO”

The European General Court has ruled that the European Commission acted improperly by refusing to release text messages exchanged between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during critical stages of the COVID-19 vaccine negotiations.

The decision follows a 2022 legal challenge brought by The New York Times seeking access to messages referenced in a 2021 interview von der Leyen gave to the publication. The interview revealed that she and Bourla had communicated directly via text in the lead-up to a major vaccine procurement agreement between the EU and Pfizer, valued in the billions of euros.

In its ruling, the court stated that the Commission “failed to explain in a plausible manner” why it believed the text messages did not constitute official documents. The court emphasized that such communications, even if exchanged via text, can contain policy-relevant information and may therefore fall under existing transparency obligations.

The case has intensified ongoing debates over the classification of informal communications and their place within the EU’s legal framework for document access and institutional accountability.

Dutch MEP Raquel García Hermida-van der Walle, representing the Renew Europe group and involved in legislative reform on access to documents, described the ruling as “a slam dunk for transparency,” emphasizing that democratic accountability extends to all forms of decision-making, including text messaging.

In response to the court’s decision, the Commission reiterated its commitment to transparency and said it would evaluate how to proceed. “Transparency has always been of paramount importance for the Commission and President von der Leyen,” it stated, noting that it would continue to operate within the EU’s legal framework.

The ruling carries potential implications for von der Leyen’s credibility and leadership, especially as she seeks a second term. Critics have pointed to the optics of the case—given that von der Leyen not only oversaw the EU’s largest vaccine contract but also leads the institution responsible for upholding EU law, including transparency standards.

The Pfizer deal in question, finalized in May 2021, involved the EU’s commitment to purchase up to 1.8 billion doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine—making it the largest single vaccine contract signed by the European Union.

While the Commission had argued that the text messages did not meet the threshold for registration as official documents, the court found that the institution must provide more than a simple denial—it must offer credible justification for withholding such records. The decision may set a precedent for how informal communications are handled in future transparency requests within the EU.

Rewritten. Source article posted here: https://www.politico.eu/article/pfizergate-verdict-ursula-von-der-leyen-eu-commission-wrong-secret-texts/