The European Commission was thrust on the defensive in court Friday, insisting elusive text messages between EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and the head of Pfizer had no bearing on a giant Covid vaccine deal with the group.
The case centres on a controversial exchange revealed in 2021 by The New York Times between von der Leyen and Albert Bourla, chief executive of Pfizer — which was chosen by the bloc as its main vaccine supplier at the height of the pandemic.
The US paper has sued the commission for failing to release the texts despite a freedom of information request, and both parties made their case Friday before the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union.
“Transparency and public access to government documents play a vital role in democratic oversight,” a lawyer for The Times, Bondine Kloostra, told the public hearing in her opening argument.
“This case presents a very important issue: whether officials may evade public transparency by communicating via text messages rather than more traditional means.”
In response, a lawyer representing the commission reiterated that the EU executive has no access to the private text messages, while insisting they did not constitute part of the subsequent vaccine negotiation.
“This was not negotiation,” said Paolo Stancanelli, describing the private interactions between von der Leyen and Bourla as “part of the preliminary consultations”.
He said the type of exchange might have involved the pair agreeing to speak on a certain day, at a certain time.
“Real negotiations started after that,” he said.
The EU moved swiftly after the Covid pandemic emerged in 2020 to secure vaccines for member countries to buy for their citizens and residents, at a time of massive global demand for the shots.
But many aspects of the procurement from key supplier Pfizer have been kept confidential, leading to claims of a lack of transparency — and several legal proceedings in Belgium and with EU courts.
“We do not deny that messages existed,” Stancanelli said.
The commission services asked to track down the text messages at the time had reached out to von der Leyen’s cabinet — which however replied it was unable to find them, he said.
A decision is not expected for several weeks, or even months.
In January 2022, the EU’s ombudsman said the commission had been guilty of “maladministration” for failing to identify any such text messages and not making them public.
It also said that, if the messages existed, they should be subject to the EU’s public transparency rules for official documents, which von der Leyen has contested.
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