The European Union’s General Court has annulled the European Commission’s decision not to disclose text messages between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. The judgment marks one of the most significant rulings in recent years in the scandal known as Pfizergate.
The ruling, issued on Wednesday, concluded that the Commission’s claim that it did not possess the messages lacked credibility. It failed to clarify whether the texts had been deleted, by what method, or if von der Leyen’s phone had been replaced. The court also found that the Commission had not justified why it considered the messages too insignificant to register officially—especially given their connection to COVID-19 vaccine procurement, a matter of undeniable public interest. The judgment reaffirmed that EU institutions must guarantee maximum public access to documents and, when denying access, must provide plausible and verifiable reasons.
Von der Leyen Loses Face
As Hungarian Conservative reported on Tuesday, the ruling is reputation-defining. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Commission signed a €35 billion contract with Pfizer for the urgent delivery of 900 million BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine doses, with an option for another 900 million. As the pandemic wanes, much of this supply now sits unused in warehouses, and the EU is scrambling to renegotiate terms to halt further shipments—thus far with limited success.
Von der Leyen played an unusually prominent role in brokering the agreement, having exchanged a series of text messages with Bourla, as reported by The New York Times in April 2021. In February 2023 the US outlet filed a lawsuit against the European Commission for refusing to release the contents of those communications.
The case was described by POLITICO—a Brussels-based outlet known for siding with mainstream and progressive figures, including von der Leyen—as emblematic of the lack of accountability at the top of EU institutions. ‘Are there any serious checks on the woman running the European Commission? That’s the real question posed by a long-awaited ruling by the EU’s General Court,’ the outlet wrote on Tuesday. It cited Nick Aiossa, director of the Soros-funded NGO Transparency International Europe, who called Pfizergate ‘the most illustrative example of the consistent discrepancy between the president’s application of transparency and her rhetoric.’ POLITICO called the ruling ‘a major embarrassment,’ particularly coming just months after von der Leyen pledged to uphold the highest standards of transparency and accountability during a potential second term. ‘We need to…ensure more transparency, more accountability,’ she told the European Parliament in July 2024.
At the time of writing, neither von der Leyen, nor the Commission reacted to the ruling.
MEPs Push for Investigation
The ruling also vindicates longstanding claims by European right-wing leaders, particularly members of the Patriots for Europe (PfE) group in the European Parliament, who have argued that Brussels frequently accuses nationalist governments of corruption and opacity while engaging in the same behaviour. One of the most cited justifications for withholding EU funds from Hungary is the alleged high-level corruption in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s administration. Similar accusations have also been leveraged in the politically motivated persecution against French opposition leader Marine Le Pen.
Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó reacted to the ruling in a post on X, calling on the European Commission to publish the messages on the vaccine purchase. ‘Why were vaccines delayed? Why did Europe overpay? Enough with the excuses. We want answers,’ he wrote.
As Brussels Signal reported last week, a coalition of right-wing and non-affiliated MEPs has secured the 180 signatures required to trigger a vote on the formation of a new committee to investigate corruption and accountability within EU institutions. Anders Vistisen, a Danish MEP from PfE, told the outlet on 7 May: ‘Patriots got the 180 MEP signatures needed to force a vote on the Committee of Inquiry on Transparency and Accountability to investigate corruption in EU institutions—especially the [European] Commission.’
The proposed Committee of Inquiry on Transparency and Accountability (TRAC) would examine a wide range of allegations, including foreign influence over legislation, abuse of power, misuse of funds, and irregularities in procurement. Lawmakers cite Pfizergate among several recent scandals that have rocked the EU, alongside Qatargate and ongoing questions surrounding procurement ethics.
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