LAST UPDATE | 17 Jul 2024

A MAJOR EU court has found that Ursula Von Der Leyen’s European Commission was not transparent enough about Covid-19 vaccine contracts with the public during her first term as European Commission president.

It’s embarrassing timing for Von Der Leyen as it comes just ahead of a crucial vote around her attempt to continue in the presidency, which is due to take place tomorrow in the European Parliament.

In a ruling published earlier today, the General Court of the European Union said that the Commission “did not give the public sufficiently wide access” to the purchase agreements for Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic.

It noted that the Commission had “granted only partial access” to documents for the vaccines contracts, as they were published online with some parts redacted.

The case stretches back to purchase agreements for vaccines in 2020 and 2021 when approximately €2.7 billion was “quickly released” so that an order could be made for more than 1 billion doses of the vaccine at the height of the pandemic.

But in 2021, some MEPs from different parties including the Greens combined with private individuals requested access to those agreements so that they could understand their terms and conditions and satisfy themselves that the public interest was protected during the signing of the deal.

In its judgments, the court partially upheld the legal action launched by MEPs and annulled the Commission’s decisions to redact sections of the contracts.

Parliament vote

It all has the potential to make Von Der Leyen uncomfortable as she awaits the result of a vote tomorrow on her bid to continue in the presidency.

Of Ireland’s MEPs, only Fine Gael members have declared the intention to vote for Von der Leyen. Fianna Fáil MEPs have been defying pressure to vote for her despite their Renew grouping being among those supporting Von Der Leyen.

For Von der Leyen to be successful, she must secure 361 votes from the parliament’s 720 MEPs.

It’s understood there is some nervousness among Von Der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP) over the amount of support she is expected to receive, though it’s expected she may still marginally pass the parliamentary vote.

With reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill in Strasbourg