BRUSSELS – The European Commission has not allowed the public enough access to information about the COVID-19 vaccine purchasing deals it secured with pharmaceutical companies during the pandemic, the EU general court said on Wednesday.
The decision was taken one day before the vote in the European Parliament, in which the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, seeks re-election.
A group of EU lawmakers took legal action after the commission refused to grant them full access to COVID-19 vaccine contracts secured between the EU’s executive arm and manufacturers.
The commission, which can appeal the decision, said it generally grants “the broadest possible public access” to documents. But in the case of vaccines, he insisted that “a difficult balance needs to be struck between the rights of the public, including MEPs, to information and the legal requirements emanating from the COVID-19 contracts themselves, which could result in compensation claims at the expense of the taxpayers’ money.”
The pandemic has shed light on the issue of transparency surrounding vaccine negotiations between the EU and big pharmaceutical groups. The commission was mandated by member countries to organize the joint procurement of vaccines and led negotiations with manufacturers.
According to the court, the acquisition of vaccines on behalf of all 27 Member States made it possible to quickly raise 2.7 billion euros (2.95 billion dollars) to place an order for more than one billion doses of vaccines.
In 2021, some members of the European Parliament requested full details of the agreements, but the commission only agreed to provide partial access to certain contracts and documents, which were posted online in redacted versions. It also declined to say how much it paid for the billions of doses it secured, arguing that the contracts were protected for confidentiality reasons.
The court noted that the commission was unable to demonstrate why disclosing the provisions of the agreements on indemnifying pharmaceutical companies for any damages they would have to pay in the event of a defect in their vaccines would have actually harmed their commercial interests.
It also stated that the commission should have provided information about the Member State representatives and commission officials involved in the negotiations.
“The General Court considers that the people who brought the action duly demonstrated the specific purpose of the public interest in disclosing the personal data of the members of that team,” the court said in a statement. “Only by having the names, surnames and details of the professional or institutional role of the members of the team in question could they have determined whether or not the members of that team had a conflict of interest.”
Amid fierce international competition for access to vaccines, von der Leyen was praised for her leadership role during the COVID-19 crisis, when the EU collectively purchased doses for its citizens. But she also received harsh criticism for the opacity of the negotiations.
Two years ago, the EU Ombudsman said in a separate case that the commission was responsible for “maladministration” by mishandling a request for access to text messages between its president and the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer regarding the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19.
Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly recommended that the commission “do a more extensive search for relevant messages” related to such purchases, after a New York Times story revealed that von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla , exchanged text messages and calls. on the acquisition of vaccines for EU countries.
A journalist then asked the commission for access to text messages and other documents, but the executive branch did not provide any texts, stating that no record of such messages had been kept. Commission officials argued that text messages are ephemeral and do not contain important information that would justify their inclusion in a document management system.
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