According to the prosecutor's lawyer at Liège, leading European prosecutors are investigating allegations of a crime in connection with the negotiations on vaccines between European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer.
Investigators from the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in fresh months have taken over from Belgian prosecutors an investigation against von der Leyen on "intervention in public functions, demolition of SMS, corruption and conflict of interest", in accordance with the legal papers seen by POLITICO and the Attorney's Advocate at Liège. While EPPO prosecutors analyse alleged crimes, no 1 has yet been charged with the case.
The investigation was originally initiated by Belgian judicial authorities in Liège 2023 after a criminal complaint was lodged by local lobbyist Frédéric Baldan. He was later joined by governments of Hungary and Poland – although the second is in the process of withdrawing their complaint after winning the election by the pro-EU government of Donald Tusk, said POLITICO spokesperson of the Polish government.
Baldana's complaint focused on the alleged exchange of text messages between von der Leyen and Pfizer's head Albert Bourla in the run-up to the EU's largest vaccination agreement in the highest period of the Covid-19 pandemic, in a affair called "Pfizergate".
Lega artis AppThe fresh York Times, who first revealed that exchange When the 2 leaders set the terms of the agreement, he started the parallel• a suit against the Commission phow she refused to disclose the contents of the message after submitting a request for access to documents.
The news that EPPO is investigating this case now threatens furthermonitoring the function of the president of the Commission in a mega vaccine transaction whose estimated value was over EUR 20 billion. EPPO conducts pan-European investigations into financial crime and can theoretically take over telephones and another applicable material from the Commission's offices or another European countries specified as the household Germany von der Leyen.
The improvement of the situation takes place in a delicate mannerAt a good time for the EU Head, as it navigates the transition to what Brussels observers anticipate it to be the second word at the head of Berlaymont.
The Commission has so far refused to disclose or even confirm the content of text messages.
The agreement, negotiated at the highest of the pandemic in 2021, was initially seen as the triumph of von der Leyen. However, the amount of vaccines purchased raised doubts, and POLITICO revealed at the end of last year that doses of at least the value of doses were wasted. EUR 4 billion. The contract for vaccines with Pfizer has been since tego renegotiation time.
Transparency activists and any opponents The political tried tolive up to the force on the CommissionTo discuss the matter, but von der Leyen has avoided referring to it so far. In consequence to a direct question asked by POLITICO about missing text messages, von der Leyen said“ Everything essential on this subject has been said and mentioned. We will wait for the results."
In 2022. The EPPO announced that it looks more mostly inIt is the first time that the Authority has been closely associated with Pfizergate.
Trade in legal hooks
The EPPO case presently under examination combines respective different legal, political and financial threads – and intersects with lawsuits brought by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer against Hungary and Poland.
Last year Baldan, a 36-year-old Belgian lobbyist represented by the same lawyer, who represents the French Bon Sens vaccine skeptic group, filed a criminal complaint in Belgium in connection with the function of von der Leyen in vaccine negotiations with Pfizer, in view of what he felt was acts of "interference in public functions, demolition of text messages, corruption and conflict of interest", according to legal information provided by his lawyer. Bon Sens presented his own legal challenges in relation to Pfizergate.
Adding European governments to his complaint adds importance to what could otherwise be seen as a individual crusade. Hungary, led by Viktor Orbán, an unbreakable opponent of von der Leyen, besides lodged a complaint regarding the function of the Commission president in the negotiations on vaccines with Pfizer, according to 2 people acquainted with the case, speaking on condition of being anonymous due to its delicate nature.
Poland filed its own complaint last November, confirmed the spokesperson for the Polish government. However, after the election of Tusk in December, “the fresh government is working [over] to retreat Poland from this proceeding”, said the spokesman.
The details of the case are not public, but the insiders said that although the complaint brought by Hungary differs from Baldan's complaint, it focuses on the same exchange of text messages. The Polish complaint was similar, said 2 people acquainted with the details of the case.
Both Hungary and Poland were besides suedwith Pfizer due to deficiency of payment for doses of vaccines after stopping deliveries, citing oversupply and financial burden associated with the war in Ukraine.
A European Commission authoritative said that the Commission has no cognition of possible proceedings outside the press articles.
The Hungarian government did not respond to the request for comment. Pfizer and EPPO refused to comment.
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