JUSTICE – L’association Common sense publishes this Friday, February 17, 2023 a press release (English version) about two procedures carried out by the association whose mission is to “preserving common sense for present and future generations”, through various actions, both scientific and social.
The first was initiated in France on January 10, 2022 and aims to have the contracts for the acquisition of vaccines against Covid-19 concluded by the European Union (EU) and pharmaceutical companies recognized as null and void.
The second procedure was introduced in the United States on December 19, 2022 and aims to obtain the publication of the text messages exchanged between Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. The non-publication of these messages fuels suspicions of corruption over the negotiation of a contract for 1.8 billion doses of anti-Covid-19 vaccines.
Initiatives that precede that of the New York Times
This procedure initiated by the association Common sense preceded the announcement last Monday in the central register of the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) of a case relating to the same issue and the same questions, initiated by the New York Times. France-Soir mentioned this in an article published yesterday.
The journalist Alexander Fanta (netzpolitik.org), who had also wanted access to these SMS, had been refused by the European Commission. The European ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, had summoned the European executive in January 2022 to“perform a more in-depth search for relevant messages”.
Věra Jourová, EU Values and Transparency Commissioner, said that“No result” had been obtained after his administration’s research. In particular, she claimed that these contents were deleted, because of their “ephemeral and short-lived nature”.
January 25, 2023, a month and a half after that of the association Common senserepresented by Xavier Azalbert, who is also the publishing director of France-Eveningthe New York Times file his complaint.
“Exclude the hypothesis of the existence of acts of corruption”
On February 17, 2023, the appeal was declared admissible by the Council of State, “thus confirming that one or more means of cassation raised are serious”according to the press release.
“Advisors from BonSens.org, Me Diane Protat, William Snyder and Brendan Berne, lawyers at the bars of Paris and the United States worked with the renowned New York firm Siri & Glimstad as part of a first cooperation between a French association (Bonsens.org) and an American one (Icandecide.org)”specifies the press release of Common sense.
The purpose of this procedure, which “aims for a request for ‘international mutual assistance’ so that the New York Court orders the Pfizer company to disclose the said exchanges (Ms. Von der Leyen refusing to do so despite the requests of European parliamentarians)”still according to the press release of the association, is “to exclude the hypothesis of the existence of acts of corruption or illegal taking of interest in the context of the conclusion of these contracts”.