(CN) — In a major blow to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a European Union court on Wednesday ruled she violated transparency laws by not turning over text exchanges between herself and the head of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer while negotiating a $39 billion vaccine contract during the coronavirus pandemic.
The General Court’s Grand Chamber ruling on Wednesday in the so-called “Pfizergate” scandal further tarnished von der Leyen’s reputation for honesty. Von der Leyen, in her second term as the EU chief executive, has been criticized for secrecy and imperious behavior not in keeping with the EU’s consensus-driven decisionmaking.
On Wednesday, the commission said it was reviewing the ruling and considering its “next steps.” General Court rulings can be appealed to the EU’s top court, the European Court of Justice. It remains unclear if the text messages at issue will ever be retrieved or whether they have been deleted or lost for good. The court did not order the commission to find the texts.
The scandal goes back to an April 2021 article in which von der Leyen told the New York Times how she secured 1.8 billion doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the height of the pandemic through a series of texts and calls with Albert Bourla, the chief executive of Pfizer, a U.S. pharmaceutical giant. With tens of thousands of Europeans falling ill and dying, von der Leyen was under huge pressure after initial delays and failures to deliver vaccines to the entire 27-nation bloc.
After the Pfizer deal was struck, doubts were raised about the Pfizer-BioNTech contract and its huge cost, prompting journalists and others to ask for the text exchanges, but the commission refused to do so. Von der Leyen’s critics accused her of seeking to hide her private dealings with Bourla and of bypassing procurement rules.
Wednesday’s court ruling related to a May 2022 public records request by Matina Stevi, the New York Times reporter who wrote the article in which von der Leyen mentioned the text messages.
The commission denied Stevi’s request, saying it no longer possessed the texts and that they had “played only a peripheral role in the conversations which took place between” von der Leyen and Bourla. Commission lawyers also said the texts might no longer be available because staff mobile phones are regularly changed due to security reasons. During the court proceedings, the commission would not say whether it looked for the texts in von der Leyen’s mobile phone.
The General Court blasted the commission for failing to live up to EU transparency laws.
In its ruling, the court wrote that EU public records laws are designed “to give the fullest possible effect to the right of public access to documents held by the institutions” and that “in principle, all documents of the institutions should be accessible to the public.”
It said the commission failed to abide by an obligation “to prove the non-existence or lack of possession of the documents requested” and to provide “plausible explanations” for why they were missing.
In court, the commission did not deny text messages were exchanged, but it said “it did not know whether the requested documents had actually existed, since it did not hold them.”
The court noted that Stevi’s reporting and interviews with Bourla and von der Leyen showed the text messages existed. It also cited Bourla telling Stevi that he and von der Leyen had “developed a deep trust, because we got into deep discussions.”
The ruling said the commission’s explanations for not finding the texts “do not suffice to provide a credible explanation of why those documents could not be found.”
By failing to retain the texts and not properly responding to the records request, the court said the commission “breached the principle of good administration” in EU law.
The Pfizer texts also were the subject of a September 2021 probe by the EU’s ombudsman, which found the commission’s dismissal of requests to see the texts as “maladministration” and urged the executive branch to do a more thorough search for the texts.
Wednesday’s ruling drew a chorus of rebuke from von der Leyen’s political enemies from both the left and right. Von der Leyen, a 66-year-old former German defense minister, hails from the European People’s Party, the main conservative party in the European Parliament. Commission presidents are chosen by the EU’s 27 heads of state.
“Billions of euros in public money cannot be signed off over text message without any public scrutiny or accountability,” said Tilly Metz, a European Parliament member from Luxembourg, in a statement. “Today’s ruling clearly demonstrates that transparency and democratic accountability must not be exercised behind closed doors in the European Union.”
Metz is affiliated with the Greens-European Free Alliance, a left-wing group in parliament that has pressed for more transparency from EU institutions.
The Left, a European Parliament group farther to the left, was even harsher.
“The opacity of the European Commission President’s dealings with Pfizer amounts to corruption at the highest levels of the European institutions,” the group said in a statement.
“European leaders must not be allowed to legislate in complete opacity, and safeguards must be put in place,” said Manon Aubry, a Left co-leader from France Unbowed, a far-left party.
The far-right Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament called for a “full inquiry” and said “Brussels corruption must have consequences.”
Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister in the far-right government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, lashed out at von der Leyen. Von der Leyen has accused Orbán of authoritarianism and cozying up with Russia.
“Von der Leyen lectures us on transparency while hiding her shady Pfizer deals,” he wrote on social media. “Why were vaccines delayed? Why did Europe overpay? Enough with the excuses. We want answers.”
For its part, the commission said it would “closely study the General Court’s decision and decide on next steps.”
“To this effect, the Commission will adopt a new decision providing a more detailed explanation,” it said in a statement.
“Transparency has always been of paramount importance for the Commission and President von der Leyen,” it added. “We will continue to strictly abide by the solid legal framework in place to enforce our obligations.”
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.