Thomas Fazi: Von der Leyen could still be toppled Pfizergate has revealed the EU's true nature

Von der Leyen could still be toppled Pfizergate has revealed the EU's true nature

Will justice be served? (JOHANNA GERON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

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CORRUPTIONCOVIDEUROPEEUROPEAN UNIONPFIZERSCIENCEURSULA VON DER LEYEN

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Thomas Fazi

MAY 31, 2024   5 MINS

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Nobody embodies the EU’s elite-driven nature better than its incumbent president, Ursula von der Leyen. And no action of hers embodies its warped excesses better than her decision, in April 2021, to single-handedly sign off on a €35-billion deal for the purchase of 1.8 billion doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. According to one analysis, the price per dose she agreed was 15 times higher than the cost of production — meaning that the EU overpaid the vaccines by tens of billions of euros. Adding fuel to the fire, the New York Times later reported that von der Leyen had personally negotiated the deal via a series of text messages and calls with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.

Since then, “Pfizergate” has ballooned into one of the biggest scandals in EU history. Following von der Leyen and the Commission’s refusal to hand over the text messages — not only to journalists, but even to the EU Ombudsmanand the EU Court of Auditors — the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), an independent EU body responsible for investigating and prosecuting financial crimes, announced in late 2022 that it had opened an investigation into the pandemic procurement process (though not into Pfizergate specifically). It confirmed that it had received “an exceptionally high number of reports and complaints” asking that “it investigate the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines in the European Union”.

Then, in April 2023, Frédéric Baldan, a Belgian lobbyist specialising in EU-China trade relations, filed a lawsuit against von der Leyen before a Liège court, accusing her of usurping official powers, destroying public documents, pursuing illicit interests and committing corruption, and damaging his country’s public finances. Shortly after, Baldan’s lobbyist accreditation was withdrawn by the European Parliament. The story, however, doesn’t end there.

Despite von der Leyen’s clumsy attempts to sweep the case under the carpet, or arguably because of them, Pfizergate continues to rumble on. Since Baldan filed his criminal complaint, several individuals, organisations and even two countries — Hungary and Poland (under the previous PiS-led government) — have joined the lawsuit. With Brussels steeling itself for the EU elections in June, all the signs pointed to a big legal bust-up and an even bigger PR disaster.

But then, earlier this month, von der Leyen’s hearing in front of the Belgian court — to decide whether the EPPO or the Belgian investigators should prosecute the case — was mysteriously postponed to December. This is not a trivial matter. Even though a year and a half has passed since the EPPO first opened its investigation, no one has yet been charged. Indeed, it’s unclear whether the EPPO has actually been looking into the case at all. A few days before the recent hearing in Liège was supposed to take place, Baldan’s lawyer, Diane Protat, visited the EPPO’s offices in Brussels and Luxembourg to request a copy of its case file — standard procedure from a legal standpoint. However, not only was she told that there was no such file, but on both occasions security was called on her.

“Even though a year and a half has passed since the EPPO first opened its investigation, no one has yet been charged.”

Such behaviour is typical of the EPPO. For several months after beginning its probe into the EU’s vaccine procurement, it showed little interest in Pfizergate; as far as we know, it didn’t even demand that von der Leyen hand over the infamous text messages. However, shortly after Baldan filed his complaint in Belgium, the EPPO quickly moved to obtain a copy of the document from the Belgian prosecutor’s office — and almost immediately claimed exclusive jurisdiction over the case.

It argues that, if there was any misconduct relating to EU-wide vaccine-procurement deals, this represents a damage to the EU budget, and that under EU law it is up to the EPPO to investigate, prosecute and bring to judgment the perpetrators of criminal offences that affect the EU budget. The complainants see the situation differently: they note that the vaccines were purchased with money that came from member states’ national budgets, not the EU budget — as even von der Leyen herself admitted in a recent presidential debate. That is why they argue that the case should be tried in national courts, such as the Belgian one, rather than by the EPPO.

As for the immunity from legal proceedings that von der Leyen enjoys as president of the Commission, the complainants suggest this applies only with respect to acts carried out within the scope of her defined function as Commission president. Suffice it to say that whether carrying out billion-euro deals behind closed doors, and then leaving member states and taxpayers to foot the bill, falls within the purview of her role is questionable. That said, the plaintiffs face an uphill struggle: if the case moves forward, the request from prosecutors to waiver von der Leyen’s immunity would be handled by the College of Commissioners — which is usually chaired by von der Leyen herself. However, they have an ally in the Belgian investigating judge, Frédéric Frenay, who has successfully investigated several corruption cases in the past: according to Euractiv, he doesn’t agree with the EPPO taking over the case and is insisting that it remain in Belgian hands.

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But why is the EPPO, after showing hardly no interest in it for several months, now so adamant about taking over the case? Given the organisation’s behaviour since Pfizergate broke, one could be forgiven for wondering if they were ever interested in truly investigating von der Leyen — or whether they were covering up for her. As the German MEP Martin Sonneborn told the Berliner Zeitung: “Why does the EPPO, which reports to Justice commissioner Didier Reynders, who reports to Commission president von der Leyen, need a year and a half to search von der Leyen’s office in the Commission building and confiscate her work cell phone to view the Pfizer SMSs?”

Questions have already been raised about the body’s judicial independence: last year, for example, it attracted criticism after Giorgia Meloni’s government helped install a new prosecutor despite an independent panel of judiciary experts ranking him last among Italy’s three candidates. Previously, other countries had faced criticism for the same reason. As Sonneborn put it, with the EPPO, “another organisation seems to have been created that does not have the interests of the citizens in mind, but rather the shielding of EU officials from their democratic accountability”.

Seen in this light, the EPPO’s efforts to assume jurisdiction over the Belgian complaint could be read as an attempt to stifle an independent investigation into Pfizergate — or at least delay it until after the EU elections and the nomination process for the new president of the Commission. Certainly, if that was the aim, they’ve succeeded. We can rest assured that Baldan’s recent demand for von der Leyen to be sacked and barred from running for office as long as she is the subject of criminal proceedings will likely fall on deaf ears.

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Von der Leyen, however, is far from off-the-hook. After all, the Belgian court may still decide to allocate jurisdiction to the state’s investigative authorities. And who knows, the EPPO might actually decide to start doing some serious investigating itself. Besides, this isn’t the only legal cloud hanging over von der Leyen’s head: another case was filed by the New York Times against the European Commission at the European Court of Justice after they failed to provide them with the text messages, but the court has yet to rule on the matter.

Paradoxically, far from pointing to a well-functioning rule of law, all of these investigations only serve to highlight the complete lack of accountability of EU politicians, and of the EU system more generally: despite all the courts and bodies that have looked into this so far, not one has managed to get von der Leyen to hand over some text messages. But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Ultimately, Pfizergate isn’t an isolated incident, but a reflection of the EU’s true nature: a haven where unelected politicians and corporate leaders can cosy up to each other away from prying eyes, unhindered by obsolete concepts such as transparency and the rule of law. The only difference is that, this time, they might finally be caught out.

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Thomas Fazi is an UnHerd columnist and translator. His latest book is The Covid Consensus, co-authored with Toby Green.

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