European Union: Ursula von der Leyen loses court case for lack of transparency in covid vaccine contracts
In 2021, MEPs of the environmentalist group asked the Executive to disclose the agreements signed with the pharmaceutical companies. The Commission provided only manipulated and redacted documents.
Ursula Von der Leyen
The European Executive of Ursula von der Leyen lost her trial for failing to provide transparency on her covid vaccine purchase contracts during the pandemic. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Tuesday overturned a decision by the former European Commission that made agreements between the institution and pharmaceutical companies opaque;
The lawsuit began after MEPs from the environmentalist group in 2021 asked the European Commission to inform the hemicycle aboutprocurement contractsfor large batches of vaccines for covid.
The court's decision comes a day before the European Parliament's upcoming vote, which will ratify Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission for one more term.
According to EuroNews, the CJEU ruled that the Commission did not give sufficient access to the purchase agreements and considers that the Executive's decision topublish only redacted versions of the contracts contains irregularities. According to the ruling, the Commission "has not shown that wider access to those clauses would actually harm the commercial interests of those companies," so it would have no reason to withhold the agreements.
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