Ursula von der Leyen just lost the "Pfizergate" legal case. EU judges of the European General Court – part of the EU Court of Justice, the highest court in the bloc – ruled that she must reveal her secret vaccine deal text messages between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
The Commission President negotiated the purchase of up to 1.8 billion doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a cost of €35 billion – the largest vaccine contract ever signed by Brussels. The price per dose she agreed is belived to have been 15 times higher than the cost of production, meaning that the EU overpaid for the vaccines by tens of billions of euros.
Related
Extern information:
- wikipedia.org - Pfizergate
- www.euronews.com - EU Commission loses on all counts in Pfizergate legal case
- transparency.eu - Pfizergate: EU court upholds transparency standards
- unherd.com - Pfizergate ruling increases pressure on Ursula von der Leyen
- www.ombudsman.europa.eu - The European Commission's refusal of public access to text messages exchanged between the Commission President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company on the purchase of a COVID-19 vaccine
