The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) announced that it is currently investigating the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines in the European Union.
The announcement comes following the extremely high public interest criticizing the EU’s use of purchased vaccines.
On Monday, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla was reportedly supposed to appear in a hearing before the European Parliament’s special committee.
“Many expected he would face questions about the EU’s immunization purchases. Despite the CEOs of Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Sanofi addressing the committee, Bourla didn’t show up. Prosecutors have a lot of questions,” Rightwing reported.
Last April 2021, the New York Times released a report and revealed the text messages between von der Leyen and Bourla prior to the EU’s largest contract for the pharmaceutical company’s product.
1/3 The COVI committee will be following this case with great attention. Several aspects of the 3rd Pfizer contract deserve looking into, the text messages between the Commission President and the fact that there is no paper trail of the preliminary negotiations in first instance https://t.co/g7dlcGBmjv
— Kathleen Van Brempt (@kvanbrempt) October 14, 2022
According to the leak, the deal would have been worth €35 billion if fulfilled.
Moreover, last January, the EU’s ombudsman accused the European Commission of committing “maladministration” for failing to look for the text messages in accordance with a freedom of information filing. The commission said it doesn’t keep “short-lived, ephemeral documents.”
The European Court of Auditors also reported last September that the commission refused to make available the details of von der Leyen’s talks with Pfizer.
Furthermore, Belgian Socialist Member of Parliament (MEP) Kathleen van Brempt released a statement and revealed how the negotiation “needed scrutiny, including the text messages, and uncovering why there wasn’t a paper trail. Brempt heads the European Parliament’s special committee on COVID-19.”
“1/3 The COVI committee will be following this case with great attention. Several aspects of the 3rd Pfizer contract deserve looking into, the text messages between the Commission President and the fact that there is no paper trail of the preliminary negotiations in first instance.” Brempt said.
“We need to know why the biggest contract is the least transparent. We need to understand why the EU is obliged to buy 1.8 billion Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, regardless of the needs, regardless of whether new and better players have entered the market,” she added.
“Many EU contracts reserved a “right” to buy but with the Pfizer contract we do have an “obligation” to buy. Why did we deviate from the normal procedure for a contract that covers our needs many times, for a period where all would already be vaccinated (2022 and 2023),” she continued.
