Prosecutors “could theoretically seize phones and other relevant material from Commission offices or in other European countries,” as they expand their criminal probe into the Pfizergate scandal.
As we warned in October last year, the walls may finally be closing in on EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen even as the EU begins to mobilise its mass censorship regime for the upcoming EU elections. There was always a risk that von der Leyen’s candidacy for reelection would be over-shadowed by the multiple lawsuits she faces over the “Pfizergate” scandal. This may already be happening.
On Monday (April 1), Politico reported that EU prosecutors had taken over a Belgian criminal probe into alleged wrong-doing in connection with vaccine negotiations between von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla. That probe centres around alleged text messages between von der Leyen and Albert Bourla during preliminary negotiations for the EU’s biggest vaccine deal that VdL has refused to disclose. As the article notes, the latest development comes at a “delicate moment for the EU’s chief, as she navigates the transition to what Brussels observers expect will be a second term at the head of the Berlaymont.”
Breaking the Silence
With the exception of Politico, the story has been studiously ignored by the English-language legacy media. This should come as little surprise: as I reported in June 2023, the EU’s COVID-19 vaccine procurement scandal has steadily grown despite deafening silence from the mainstream media. But the news has been covered by European outlets, including Germany’s Berliner Zeitung and Focus magazine; Valeurs Actuelles and Atlantico in France, and La Repubblica, Il Sole 24 Ore, and Il Fatto Quotidiano in Italy. Let’s begin with the Politico article:
Investigators from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) have in recent months taken over from Belgian prosecutors investigating von der Leyen over “interference in public functions, destruction of SMS, corruption and conflict of interest,” according to legal documents seen by POLITICO and a spokesperson from the Liège prosecutor’s office. While EPPO’s prosecutors are investigating alleged criminal offenses, no one has yet been charged in connection with the case.
The probe was originally opened by Belgian judicial authorities in the city of Liège in early 2023 after a criminal complaint lodged by local lobbyist Frédéric Baldan. He was later joined by the Hungarian and Polish governments — although the latter is in the process of withdrawing its complaint after the election win by a pro-EU government led by Donald Tusk, a Polish government spokesperson told POLITICO.
What the Politico article fails to mention is that Donald Tusk is a close ally of von der Leyen’s as well as a former president of the European Council (2014-19). Both Tusk and von der Leyen are members of the same centre-right European People’s Party. Since returning to power in December, the VdL Commission has begun unblocking up to €137 billion in EU funds for Poland that had been frozen amid a standoff with Poland’s previous “Law and Order” government. In other words, Tusk’s offer to withdraw Poland’s complaint is no surprise. In short order, Poland will presumably be receiving a new consignment of millions of unwanted vaccines.
The criminal complaint lodged by Baldan in April 2023 accuses von der Leyen of “interference in public functions”, “destruction of public documents” and “illegal conflicts of interests and corruption.” The 35-year old Belgian lobbyist argues that the Belgian state suffered financially as a result of the EU Commission’s €35 billion deal with Pfizer-BioNTech to buy up to 1.8 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Unsurprisingly, that turned out to be way more than the EU countries needed and many doses had to be destroyed or donated. According to Baldan, VdL’s actions also “constitute an attack on public morality, on the legitimate confidence of European citizens, on good administration and on transparency.”
Pfizer-BioNTech vs Hungary and Poland
Hungary and Poland joined Baldan’s complaint after Pfizer and its German vaccine partner, BioNtech, announced they were suing both countries over their refusal to take delivery of millions more doses of their COVID-19 vaccines, many of which would end up getting destroyed months later. There have already been at least €4 billion worth of wasted vaccine doses in the EU. The Commission’s vaccine contract with Pfizer has since been renegotiated, but Hungary’s Orbán government and the former Law and Order government of Poland still refused to take delivery of more vaccines.
As we noted at the time, Pfizer and BioNtech’s subsequent lawsuits were particularly egregious even by the normal standards of investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS):
Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccines are in much lower demand in Europe, as just about everywhere else, for a good reason: they have proven to be not nearly as safe nor as effective as their manufacturers had originally claimed… What’s more, the EU’s purchases of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are themselves the subject of a criminal investigation. That’s right: Pfizer and BioNTech are trying to force payment through the Belgian court system of a contract that is itself being investigated by the Luxembourg-based European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) [as well as public prosecutors in Liège, Belgium]. Meanwhile, BioNtech is facing a rash of lawsuits in its native Germany for suspected injuries and adverse events caused by its COVID-19 vaccine while Pfizer is facing a trial in Texas for misrepresenting the efficacy of its vaccine.
The EPPO was founded in 2017 to conduct “pan-European investigations into crimes against the EU budget,” including fraud, corruption, money laundering and VAT fraud. As the Politico piece notes, the prosecutors “could theoretically seize phones and other relevant material from Commission offices or in other European countries such as Von der Leyen’s native Germany,” which would certainly not be a good look for the VdL’s reelection campaign. Some are calling for her removal.
“Mrs. von der Leyen’s disregard for the rule of law and transparency obligations at the top of the EU Commission makes her unsustainable for another term in office,” said Fabio De Masi, a former lawmaker for Germany’s socialist Left Party who sat on a parliamentary inquiry into the Wirecard affair and is now running as an EU candidate for Germany’s populist-left party, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht.
It remains to be seen whether further Pfizergate revelations will emerge over the next two months, and whether they will be enough to scupper Von der Leyen’s reelection prospects…
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Nick Corbishley 