With court cases and EU elections looming in the first half of this year, big question marks hang over the future of the EU Commission president.
Europe’s — and according to Forbes, the world’s — most powerful woman, Ursula von der Leyen (whom I will heretofore refer to as VdL), is in a bit of a jam. As Berliner Morgenpost reported this week, the European Commission president could be instructed by the European Union’s top court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), to release all of her cellphone text messages pertaining to the mega COVID-19 vaccine deal she brokered with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in early 2021 (which may already have been deleted; she has form when it comes to destroying digital evidence).
The ECJ wants to reach a swift resolution to a lawsuit brought by the New York Times demanding the release of the messages. Meanwhile, the investigations, criminal or otherwise, against VdL’s Commission are stacking up.
“A Mistake of Strategic Proportions”
The article in the Berliner Morgen Post, titled “Text Messages Could Pose a Threat to Ursula von der Leyen,” provided a neat summary of VdL’s starring role in “Pfizergate” — arguably the most important political scandal in EU history — before exploring the growing disaffection in EU capitals over VdL’s go-it-alone approach to EU foreign policy, in which she has essentially arrogated to herself powers that have traditionally belonged to EU national governments (machine translated):
Von der Leyen has recently provoked considerable resentment in European capitals with her solo foreign policy moves. She promised [Ukraine] €50 billion euros without the consent of EU states, who would have to foot the bill. In Tunisia, she signed a preparatory migration agreement without first consulting the member states. And the fact that she deviated from the official EU line during her visit to Israel caused outrage in Brussels: she gave the Israeli government full support for its defence against the Hamas terrorist attacks, without, as agreed beforehand, insisting on respect for international law and the protection of the civilian population. A “mistake of strategic proportions,” complained diplomats in Brussels.
Even at this late stage in VdL’s mandate, it is rare for an article in Europe’s mainstream press to take VdL to task for her role in Pfizergate — which, for the sake of precision, should be known as Pfizer-BioNTechgate (I know, a bit of a mouthful) given that BioNTech was the original manufacturer of the mRNA vaccine. The Mainz-based pharmaceutical’s ties to the German federal government could not be closer, having been seed-funded and subsidised by successive Merkel administrations, of which VdL was the only constant member. Without this support, the firm may never have got off the ground, and probably would not have survived as long as it did (12 years) without selling a single product.
BioNTech’s ties with both Berlin and the VdL Commission remain strong. Just two weeks ago, VdL was accompanied by Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on a state visit to Rwanda, where they opened BioNTech’s first mRNA vaccine factory in Africa. The factory was part-financed with EU funds. As Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame said during the factory’s inauguration, “The European Union, and President von der Leyen personally, helped to make this a reality.” In other words, as the criminal investigations into Pfizer-BioNTech continue, VdL’s Commission continues to funnel scarce EU funds in BioNTech’s direction.
Speaking at a recent event organised by the Brussels-based strategic consultancy SEC Newgate, the EU Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, lambasted European media for failing to investigate and report on EU corruption during VdL’s mandate. In 2022, O’Reilly accused VdL’s Commission of maladministration over the Pfizergate scandal, to little avail. The EU Ombudsman has, in O’Reilly’s words, “recommendatory powers only,” and has no legal means of holding VdL accountable besides stating the facts and asking for recourse.
From European Conservative, ironically one of precious few European media outlets that actually covered O’Reilly’s speech:
That’s why O’Reilly turned to the media at a recent event held by the Brussels-based strategic consultancy SEC Newgate, wondering why journalists seem to hold back when it comes to von der Leyen and possibly the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the EU.
While acknowledging that the Commission’s strategy to “stonewall” the media makes it hard for journalists to hold von der Leyen accountable for anything, O’Reilly said she was “amazed [at how] such a prominent figure as von der Leyen isn’t questioned harder on her missing Pfizer texts.”
A Story of Two Scandals
The media silence is particularly striking given the much greater attention devoted to the Qatargate scandal involving the European Parliament, an institution that wields far less influence and power than the Commission. The resulting probe into the current and former MEPs and parliamentary assistants implicated in the bribery ring scandal now appears to have bogged down, according to the Financial Times.
Qatargate may be the EU’s biggest graft scandal in decades but its implications pale in significance to those of Pfizergate, as I noted in my December 16, 2022 post, Will the Fallout from “Qatargate” Splatter the EU Commission?:
In contrast to Qatargate, [Pfizergate] has been studiously ignored by Europe’s legacy media despite the staggering sums of money involved (tens of billions of dollars to date to buy up to 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccines), the number of people affected (anyone who pays taxes in the EU and felt compelled by the EU’s vaccine passport rules to take a medical product they didn’t want) and the seniority of those implicated, including Von der Leyen herself and Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.
Von der Leyen herself has come under fire for concealing and/or deleting records of her conversations with Bourla prior to the Commission’s purchase of up to 1.8 billion vaccines. As for Bourla, he has twice refused to give testimony to a European Parliament special committee on the matter.
Now, the chickens could be coming home to roost for VdL, as the legal cases against her mount at the most sensitive of times in the political calendar — election year…
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Nick Corbishley 