The European Union’s second-highest court has ruled that the EU Commission was not transparent enough about its Covid vaccine deals with pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer and AstraZeneca, stating that there were no legitimate reasons to conceal certain contract details.
The ruling pertains to purchase agreements made in 2020 and 2021, at the peak of the pandemic, valued at approximately €2.7 billion ($2.95 billion). In 2021, MEPs sought access to the agreements’ terms to ensure public interest protection and the absence of conflicts of interest among EU negotiators.
Brussels only granted partial access to redacted documents and withheld the names of the negotiating team, citing the need to safeguard commercial interests and the decision-making process. MEPs subsequently challenged the Commission’s decision in court.
“The Commission did not give the public sufficiently wide access to the purchase agreements for COVID-19 vaccines,” the court stated. “The Commission did not demonstrate that wider access to those clauses would actually undermine the commercial interests of those undertakings.”
The court further ruled that “the Commission did not take sufficient account of all the relevant circumstances in order to weigh up correctly the interests at issue, related to the absence of a conflict of interests and a risk that the right of privacy of the persons concerned might be infringed.” The ruling partially upheld two cases against Brussels, annulling the Commission’s decisions to withhold data from the public, citing “irregularities” in those decisions.
Brussels swiftly responded to the judgment, which came just two days before a European Parliament vote on Ursula von der Leyen’s bid for a second term as EU Commission head. Text messages between von der Leyen and the Pfizer CEO regarding one of the contracts had been a point of contention between the Commission and MEPs. Lawmakers demanded access to these messages, but Brussels maintained that von der Leyen did not retain them.
“In general, the Commission grants the widest possible public access to documents, in line with the principles of openness and transparency,” the court declared, adding that it “only partially upheld the legal action on two points” and “confirmed that the Commission was entitled to provide only partial access.”
Brussels stated that it would “carefully study” the decision and that it “reserves its legal options.” The EU Commission retains the option to appeal the decision to the European Court of Justice – the bloc’s highest judicial body.