Over 100 billion for covid vaccines “went down the chimney”. The main European prosecutor will now shine a light on the suspicious text messages of the president of the European Commission and the head of Pfizer, this is bad news for von der Leyen

This news certainly did not please the head of the European Commission, and especially not now before the European elections. In recent months, the investigators of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office have taken over the case of her suspicious negotiations with the head of the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Albert Bourla, regarding covid vaccines. The case was originally on the table of Belgian investigators in the city of Liège. But the powers of European investigators are stronger. Which is not good news for the current head of the European Commission, who would like to hold the post for another term.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is based in Luxembourg, is now investigating von der Leyen’s possible unauthorized interference in the performance of public office, destruction of text messages, corruption and conflict of interest, as Politico reports.

The investigation was launched at the beginning of last year by the authorities of Liège, on the basis of a criminal complaint filed by local lobbyist Frédérik Baldan. It was later joined by the Hungarian and Polish governments. But Poland is now withdrawing its criminal complaint – after the pro-European government coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk emerged victorious from last year’s elections there.

Baldan’s criminal complaint focuses on an alleged exchange of text messages between von der Leyen and Bourla, which should have taken place before the EU’s largest-ever vaccine deal was negotiated in 2021, at the height of the covid-19 pandemic.

The affair known as “Pfizergate” was started by the New York Times, which was the first to report on the correspondence between the President of the European Commission and the CEO of Pfizer. In that context, the newspaper filed its own lawsuit against the European Commission, due to its refusal to publish the content of the given correspondence.

The fact that the case has now been taken over by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office marks the opening of a new chapter in its investigation. The office conducts pan-European investigations into financial crime and has the authority to seize mobile phones and other evidence both directly at the headquarters of the European Commission and in other European countries, including Germany, von der Leyen’s homeland.

It is estimated that the volume of the European Commission’s and Pfizer’s vaccine business exceeded the value of twenty billion euros, i.e. 500 billion crowns, and EU member states could not easily withdraw from it even at a time when the spread of the disease was already slowing down. At the same time, vaccines for at least four billion euros, which corresponds to more than 100 billion crowns, were purchased unnecessarily and were disposed of without use, as Politico calculated at the end of last year.

Lukáš Kovanda, Ph.D.

Chief Economist, Trinity Bank