Ursula von der Leyen at the European People’s Party Summit, 2021. Photo: European People’s Party/ CC BY 2.0
Huge quantities ordered for billions of euros. Renegotiations with Pfizer anger Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania and Hungary. Ursula von der Leyen under pressure for “personal diplomacy”. A criminal complaint was filed.
The EU has ordered too much corona vaccine. Negotiations are now underway with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer as to whether, under the terms of the contract, vaccine doses that have been ordered should also be paid for due to a lack of demand not be manufactured at all.
According to a recent report by Welt have the EU with pharmaceutical companies – so not only at Pfizer –, “Ordered a total of 4.2 billion vaccine doses”. The “huge amounts” would be enough “to have every citizen of the Union vaccinated nine times against the corona virus”. So far, according to the newspaper, only a quarter of the quantity ordered has been vaccinated.
Why was so much ordered?
The gap and the large amount of money involved – the article mentions “billions” twice, but does not mention a specific number linked to a specific period – raise a few questions about the background.
A few are partially answered in the article addressing the anger at the Pfizer deal. A politically neuralgic question, which also affects a top German politician, remains open.
First of all: Why was so much ordered? Now, after the end of the corona pandemic and since the side effects of mRNA vaccinations are being discussed more openly, one is surprised that the EU was so overzealous about doing business with certain pharmaceutical companies. Nine vaccine doses per EU citizen? That seems ridiculous today.
The political pressure
In January 2021, the daily mirror very critical of that hesitant vaccine procurement the EU. The focus was on the “face of the European vaccination campaign”, Stella Kyriakides, the EU Health Commissioner from Cyprus. The question was raised as to whether the Commission “(did) not spend enough money when it started negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry in the summer?”
The article gives an example of the pressure that was built up at the time – a characteristic of the political climate at the time of the Corona crisis, which is often left in the background in the post-processing today.
People who did not get vaccinated and opponents of the Corona measures have a lot and often blatant things to say about the climate that prevailed at the time. But there was also increased pressure on the political leaders to offer solutions to the crisis as quickly as possible. And vaccination was considered the best quick fix.
However, the pressure and hectic pace of the crisis alone cannot explain the huge order. Politicians are expected to act prudently, especially at a time when citizens are being urged to be prudent every day.
business interests
The accusation that business interests played a very important role here and that the negotiations between politicians and pharmaceutical companies could not be identical to the summum bonum, the interest in the common good, was avoided as an issue. The fear of feeding the wrong side of politics with reports was too great.
It’s still going around today, according to reports from Brussels. When ordering vaccines from Pfizer, according to research by New York Times (and not by so-called alternative media) a “personal diplomacy” between EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer boss Albert Bourla, presumably an important role that is in any case not very transparent.
It’s about missing text messages between the two that could shed some light on the deal. The US newspaper is suing for disclosure (complaint against EU Commission: What does der Leyen’s SMS to Pfizer say?).
“Wall of Silence”
The EU Commission is silent on this: “It claims that the vaccine contracts were negotiated on behalf of all EU countries and are subject to a duty of confidentiality. It does not want to comment on the matter,” reports Eric Bonse from Brussels. The “Wall of Silence” can also be clearly felt in the European Parliament:
I asked several MEPs – no answer. I’ve been told quietly that this affair only benefits the right, the EU opponents.
It is reported from Belgium that a “Lobbyist”Frédéric Balda, accredited with the European institutions, have now filed a criminal complaint against von der Leyen with a judge for financial procedures.
Seine Allegations against the EU President are “usurpation of office and abuse of titles”, “destruction of public documents” and “illegal representation of interests and corruption”.
For the already mentioned EU Health Commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, however, counters this:
The President of the Commission was not involved in any contract negotiations. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
Kyriakides said so at the end of March. She asserted “that all contracts, whether from Pfizer or other laboratories, had gone through the legislative process”. It have a joint negotiating team and a steering committee given.
2023-04-24 12:57:47
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