The European public prosecutor’s office has announced the opening of an investigation into the purchase of anti-Covid vaccines. Elected officials and NGOs denounce the vagueness of the contracts, while the exchanges of SMS between the President of the Commission and the CEO of Pfizer fuel suspicions.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office, an independent body responsible for combating EU fund fraud, announced on October 14 that it had opened an investigation into the purchase of anti-Covid vaccines in the European Union.
“The European Attorney General’s Office confirms that it has an ongoing investigation into the acquisition of anti-Covid vaccines in the EU”he said in a message posted on social networks. “This exceptional confirmation comes due to extremely high public interest,” added the prosecution, emphasizing however “that no other details will be made public at this stage”.
The #AFTER THAT confirms that it has an ongoing investigation into the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines in the European Union. This exceptional confirmation comes after the extremely high public interest. No further details will be made public at this stage. pic.twitter.com/4001sNZREN
— European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) (@EUProsecutor) October 14, 2022
Faced with the arrival of the coronavirus, which reached Europe at the start of 2020, the European Commission had decided to proceed with the group purchase of vaccines on behalf of the 27 Member States. More than the majority of the doses were purchased or reserved for the American-German duo Pfizer/BioNTech. Five other manufacturers have also seen their vaccines approved by the European regulator: Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Novavax and Valneva.
Confidentiality of contracts criticized
MEPs as well as NGOs have criticized the lack of transparency of the purchase contracts and in particular the fact that the key aspects of the contracts remain confidential. In addition, an exchange of text messages between the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer Albert Bourla, revealed at the end of April 2021 by the New York Times sparked controversy and even led the EU mediator to to intervene.
Read also: European Parliament: “Half of the contracts with Pfizer are redacted”
Faced with the refusal by the Commission services to a journalist who asked to know the content, the ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, considered this summer that the public should be able to have access to the text messages exchanged by the EU institutions. under the same conditions as for the other European working documents. The Brussels executive body will finally let it be known that its president is no longer in possession of the famous SMS.
During a meeting of the Special Committee on the Covid-19 pandemic in early September, in the presence of Emily O’Reilly, European elected officials had mentioned the possibility of seizing the European public prosecutor’s office.
A Commission spokesperson argued that Ursula von der Leyen exchanged text messages with the CEO of Pfizer “as she has had exchanges with the CEOs of other companies” in order to convince them to supply the EU “in accordance with the procedures”. But the head of the European executive “did not negotiate the contracts” with pharmaceutical companies, the spokesperson added.
Read also: SMS between Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer: the controversy
He explained that these negotiations had been supervised on the EU side by a steering committee involving “representatives of the Commission and of all the Member States”. These latter “had the possibility of withdrawing from the contract”according to him.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office, officially established in 2021, is an independent EU body responsible for combating fraud against EU funds and any other offense affecting its financial interests (corruption, money laundering, cross-border fraud VAT). This supranational body is responsible for investigating but also for prosecuting and bringing to justice the perpetrators of such offenses, an unprecedented power which the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) did not have.