European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has rejected allegations that her communications with pharmaceutical executives in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic may have been contrary to the EU's interests.
She stated this on July 7 in Strasbourg at a meeting of the European Parliament, where the issue of passing a vote of no confidence in the European Commission was considered.
Contracts with pharmaceutical companies did not contradict the interests of the EU
The head of the EC stated that accusations of violating EU interests due to her correspondence with representatives of pharmaceutical companies are unfounded.
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“It is no secret that I was in touch with the heads of the companies that produced the vaccines that could lead us out of the crisis. Of course, I was. Just as I consulted with the best epidemiologists and virologists in the world,” the head of the EC emphasized.
She added that assumptions that the contracts concluded were illegal or contrary to the interests of the EU were not true.
“The suggestion that these contracts were somehow unlawful or contrary to European interests is absolutely false from every point of view,” von der Leyen noted.
She explained that the negotiations on vaccine supplies involved both the European Commission and the Member States. Each agreement was carefully reviewed in national capitals before it was signed.
So let me set out the facts clearly once again. The contracts were negotiated jointly by the Commission and the Member States. Each individual contract was carefully reviewed in the national capitals before it was signed by all 27 Member States. There were no secrets, no hidden clauses, no commitments to buy vaccines for Member States,” von der Leyen explained.
According to her, no country was obliged to buy vaccines – decisions were made voluntarily.
– Therefore, any assertion that a member state was not aware of contracts, prices or volumes is dishonest. In fact, let's call a spade a spade: it is simply a lie, – Ursula von der Leyen emphasized.
Let us recall that on July 7, the European Parliament considered an initiative to express no confidence in the European Commission. The vote on this matter is scheduled for Thursday, July 10.
The initiative was initiated by MEP Gheorghe Piperea from the Romanian far-right party AUR. The reason was the scandal surrounding the correspondence between Ursula von der Leyen and Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, during a discussion about vaccine procurement during the pandemic.
In May this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the European Commission's refusal to grant New York Times journalists access to these reports was unlawful.
