The von der Leyen case. How the head of the European Commission became implicated in the vaccine scandal

A court in the Belgian city of Liege is considering legal immunity for European Commission (EC) head Ursula von der Leyen, said the plaintiff, social activist Frederic Baldan. The final ruling will be handed down on January 20. Earlier she was accused of corruption in the purchase of vaccines from Pfizer in 2020 from COVID-19 for more than € 35 billion without the agreement of the EU countries. Details of the case - in the material "Izvestia".

What von der Leyen is accused of

- Von der Leyen is accused of concluding in late 2020 a contract for the purchase of 1.8 billion doses of vaccines against COVID-19 from the American company Pfizer for the amount of € 35 billion, the trials of which have not yet been completed, by SMS correspondence with the CEO of Pfizer Albert Burla. This took place without prior approval from EU countries.

- The American edition of The New York Times requested information on the correspondence between the head of the EC and the CEO of Pfizer, but was refused. A number of politicians and members of the European Parliament then also demanded that the European Commission make the SMS public in order to make sure that the communication did not violate EU norms on the transparency of transactions and placement of purchases.

- The European Commission actually confirmed the discussion of contracts with Pfizer over the phone, but categorically refused to publish the correspondence itself, claiming that it had allegedly been "mistakenly deleted. The European Commission argued that the messages were not a document to be preserved, so they could not be found.

- The New York Times appealed to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg over its refusal to publish the correspondence. The hearing is set to begin in November 2024. It is expected to take several months to reach a decision on the case.

- The media dubbed the vaccine scandal "pfizergate." During the coronavirus pandemic, the European Union purchased most of the drugs from the US-German consortium BioNtech-Pfizer. The European Commission also signed contracts to purchase coronavirus vaccines with AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Moderna, Novavax and Valneva.

- Billions of euros have been earmarked for these purchases. The exact prices of the vaccination doses were not reported under the pretext of contractual obligations not to disclose details.

- During the procurement and vaccination campaigns, EU countries have experienced delays in delivery schedules, which have led to court proceedings, among other things. MEPs have criticized the European Commission for its lack of transparency in vaccine procurement.

- The scandal became even bigger against the background of the disposal of more than 200 million unclaimed doses of the drug for 2022-2023 in 19 EU countries. According to media reports, the European budget losses amounted to about €4 billion. Despite this, the EU is forced to continue purchasing vaccines from Pfizer until 2027. Poland and Hungary decided to refuse to purchase due to unnecessity, but the pharmaceutical company sued them.

- Ursula's husband Heiko von der Leyen is the medical director of the biotechnology company Orgenesis, which is developing the BioShield project - a "supervaccine" against a group of viruses, including COVID-19. And the company is partnering with Pfizer. In 2021, his company reported revenue growth of 364%, which increased suspicions of collusion.

- As a result, von der Leyen was accused of illegally obtaining interest, destruction of administrative documents and usurpation of authority.

How the investigation is proceeding

- The proceedings were launched in Belgium after a lawsuit filed by Belgian lobbyist Frederic Baldan against von der Leyen in a local court. The plaintiff believes that her actions have caused economic damage to Belgium. In particular, he accuses the head of the EC of destroying publicly important documents, abuse of power and corruption.

- Frederic Baldan said that the number of participants in the lawsuit against the head of the European Commission has reached a thousand. He noted that usually in courtrooms participants of the process on the part of the prosecution and defense are seated on different sides, "but in Liege there is no hall of such size, and at the hearing participants of the prosecution sit including behind the lawyers von der Leyen".

- Von der Leyen's lawyers made no comment to the media.

- The first hearing in the case was held on May 17, 2024, at which time the Liege court confirmed that the case falls within its jurisdiction and should not be transferred to the European Prosecutor's Office, created at the initiative of von der Leyen herself, due to the obvious conflict of interest.

- The second hearing, which was supposed to take place on December 6, was actually disrupted due to the demarche of the EU prosecutor's office, which sent a counter-request for von der Leyen's immunity to the court. It is this request that the court is due to consider on January 6.

Whether von der Leyen has immunity

- Baldan noted that from the prosecution's point of view, von der Leyen "cannot have any immunity in relation to the corruption investigation." After all, the immunity of European officials "is of a limited nature and extends only to the scope of their direct duties," whereas in this case "it went far beyond them."

- His lawyer, Diane Prota, added that if the court shares the position of the EU prosecutor's office that von der Leyen has immunity in the case, the plaintiffs will seek to have her immunity stripped through the court.

What is known about von der Leyen

- Ursula von der Leyen (maiden name Albrecht) was born on October 8, 1958 in Brussels. Her father, a prominent German politician, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Ernst Albrecht worked in the European Commission (in detail about the facts of life of Ursula von der Leyen we told here).

- On her father's side, Ursula von der Leyen is a descendant of Bremen cotton merchant Ludwig Knop, who lived in Russia for a long time. He founded the Krenholm Chintz Manufactory, the largest in the Russian Empire. Emperor Alexander II granted him the title of Baron for his contribution to the development of the textile industry.

- Ursula von der Leyen studied economics at the universities of Göttingen and Münster, and also studied at the London School of Economics and the Medical Institute in Hanover.

- Ursula von der Leyen first took over as President of the European Commission in the summer of 2019. In her favor were 383 deputies out of 747. Before her, this position was held only by men. Under her leadership, Europe experienced a coronavirus epidemic and global political escalation. In 2024, von der Leyen was re-elected to head the EC.

- Ursula von der Leyen is one of the harshest critics of Russia. Even at the beginning of her work as head of the European Commission, she accused Russia of "annexing Crimea" and attempts to "divide Europe." After the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine in February 2022, she said that "the EU wants to see the victory of the Ukrainian state over the Russian Federation."