EU stonewalls over von der Leyen’s role in multibillion-euro Pfizer vaccine dealWith every passing day, the negotiations held between the European Commission and Pfizer over the EU’s largest COVID-19 vaccine contract look less like business as usual and more like a whodunnit.
The plot thickened further after the European Court of Auditors published a report today, accusing the Commission of refusing to disclose any details of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's personal role in the talks.
The budget watchdog found that the EU chief threw out the existing rulebook to hash out a preliminary deal with the U.S. multinational, paving the way for a contract for up to 1.8 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to be signed in May 2021. For all the other vaccine deals struck by the EU between 2020 and 2021, a joint team comprising officials from the Commission and seven member countries conducted exploratory talks. The outcome was then taken to a Vaccine Steering Board made up of representatives from all 27 EU member states who signed off on it.
But this established procedure was not followed in the case of the EU’s biggest contract, the Court of Auditors says. Instead, von der Leyen herself conducted preliminary negotiations for the contract in March, and presented the results to the steering board in April. Meanwhile, a planned meeting of scientific advisers, organized to discuss the EU’s vaccine strategy for 2022, never took place, the court writes.
Unlike with the other contract negotiations, the Commission refused to provide records of the discussions with Pfizer, either in the form of minutes, names of experts consulted, agreed terms, or other evidence. "We asked the Commission to provide us with information on the preliminary negotiations for this agreement," the report's authors write. "However, none was forthcoming."
A senior auditor who helped lead the investigation told POLITICO that the Commission's refusal to divulge information was highly unusual. “This comes up almost never. It’s not a situation that we at the court normally face," said the auditor, who requested anonymity.
The audit report raises further concerns about von der Leyen's actions, just two days before she is due to deliver her annual State of the Union address.
Already in April 2021, the New York Times reported that the EU leader had exchanged text messages with Albert Bourla, the chief executive officer of Pfizer, in the run-up to the deal. The seemingly cozy relationship between top political and business leaders raised eyebrows at the time.
And, as the report notes, the European ombudsman's investigation into the matter met a wall of silence. At the time, the Commission claimed that it no longer had the text messages on record. In response, ombudsman Emily O'Reilly determined that maladministration had taken place.
Read more:
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-ston ... -jab-deal/