The European Union’s second-highest court delivered an unusual reprimand to the European Commission on Wednesday, ruling that it did not give the public sufficient information about its agreements to purchase Covid-19 vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision by the General Court in Luxembourg gives new momentum to critics of Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who led the bloc’s response to the pandemic. It came just ahead of what is expected to be a tight vote on Thursday that will determine if she will serve another term as the European Union’s top official.
The European Union has refused to disclose the terms of the contracts it secured for Covid-19 vaccines, publishing redacted purchasing agreements. Green members of the European Parliament and private individuals had sued the commission, the bloc’s executive arm, seeking to gain access to the contracts and terms it negotiated with vaccine manufacturers.
On Wednesday, the court found that the European Commission was wrong to redact parts of the purchasing agreements that it published online, saying that it “did not demonstrate that wider access” to the details would undermine commercial interests. The court also said that the commission should have disclosed conflicts of interests by members of the team who negotiated the purchase of the vaccines.
The European Commission said in a statement that it would “carefully study” the court’s findings and their implications. It noted that the commission had needed to “strike a difficult balance” between giving the public and members of the European Parliament access to information, while satisfying the legal requirements of the vaccine contracts.
“In fact, in many cases in the past,” the statement said, an E.U. court has “recognized the need to protect the business interests of a contractual partner.” It added that the commission had provided the European Parliament “full information” on the vaccine contracts.
The European Union’s initial vaccine campaign was marred by a slow start compared with Britain and the United States, with the bloc taking a more conservative, budget-conscious approach. But the European Union later caught up and even surpassed other major countries after Ms. von der Leyen secured a contract with Pfizer-BioNTech, announced in May 2021, worth billions of euros.
At the time, the deal was backed by all E.U. member states, and Ms. von der Leyen was widely praised for securing access to the Pfizer vaccines. In 2021, when 70 percent of E.U. adults had been fully vaccinated, Ms. von der Leyen hailed the milestone and lauded the bloc’s coronavirus response.
But in the following years, concern has grown that the bloc, under Ms. von der Leyen’s direction, ordered too many vaccines, resulting in some going to waste.
In a separate case, The New York Times last year sued the European Commission as part of a freedom of information request that sought access to text messages between Ms. von der Leyen and the chief executive of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, as they negotiated a deal for Covid-19 vaccines. The case is pending in the European Court of Justice.
The New York Times welcomed the ruling on Wednesday.
“We are very pleased to see the court recognize and reinforce the importance of freedom of information in the European Union,” Maria Case, a spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Criticism of Ms. von der Leyen’s secrecy over the vaccine contracts is one of the more serious shadows she faces in terms of her record. In 2022, the European Commission said that it could not find the relevant text messages between Ms. von der Leyen and Dr. Bourla.
Concerns about the lack of transparency on the vaccine contracts, which come amid a recent surge in far-right politicians gaining seats in the European Parliament, have contributed to a sense of distrust among European voters about how officials have spent taxpayer money.
Because Thursday’s vote to determine whether Ms. von der Leyen can serve a second five-year term as president of the European Commission is secret and party discipline in the European Parliament is loose, she will need to rely on a broad coalition to secure the 361 votes needed to be confirmed by the 720-seat assembly.
In addition to members of her own party, Ms. von der Leyen will most likely need votes from center-left lawmakers including the Greens, who have been incensed by the way she handled the coronavirus crisis. Still, Ms. von der Leyen is expected to narrowly win.
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