European Commission Preventing Release of Secret Text Messages Detailing COVID-19 Vaccine Deal With Pfizer

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, communicating via secret text messages, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen negotiated a multibillion-euro vaccine deal with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. When journalists subsequently sought access to her messages under European Union (EU) transparency laws, the Commission refused to provide them, claiming they were supposedly too “short-lived” to be archived. The secrecy over the deal has since sparked legal battles and a growing anger regarding the EU’s blatant lack of democratic accountability.

Lack of transparency

In early 2021 von der Leyen was in direct text message contact with Bourla, attempting to obtain up to 1.8 billion doses of Pfizer’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine. She eventually agreed a deal at a price of around €21.5 billion ($22.4 billion). When Alexander Fanta, an investigative journalist, later sought access to her texts through the EU’s so-called ‘freedom of information’ laws, the European Commission – the unelected executive body of Europe – refused to provide them.

The text messages – which could shed light on the shadowy negotiations with Pfizer, as well as explain why the EU paid a higher price compared to doses it had already purchased – were dismissed by the Commission as “short-lived” and not subject to public disclosure. The bloc is now defending the matter in court. Its behavior reinforces long-standing concerns about a habitual lack of transparency at the highest levels of the EU.

Setting a dangerous precedent

The principle at stake is clear: European citizens have a right to know the facts about decisions made on their behalf during the pandemic. But by keeping von der Leyen’s communications off-the-record, the Commission has set a very dangerous precedent.

If text messages – potentially containing key policy discussions – are never archived, then exchanges between EU officials and representatives of corporate multinationals such as Pfizer can take place beyond public scrutiny. Disturbingly, therefore, it is essentially being claimed that no such messages have been preserved in the Commission’s official archives.

The Commission’s legal team has argued in court that von der Leyen’s text messages were not “substantive” enough to qualify as official documents to be preserved. Yet, under questioning, Commission officials have admitted that they have never actually reviewed the messages themselves, instead relying on von der Leyen’s staff’s assurances about their content. This has led to a judge openly describing the Commission’s claims as “bizarre.”

Fraud investigations

The EU’s lack of transparency extends far beyond vaccine deals. For example, its €723 billion ($753.4 billion) post-pandemic recovery fund – one of the largest public spending initiatives in the bloc’s history – was supposed to finance digital tech and climate investments over a period of six years. However, Greek authorities are investigating a potential €2.5 billion ($2.6 billion) fraud linked to the fund, while Italian police are probing another suspected case worth €600 million ($623 million). Not only have the European Commission and member states failed to reveal all the beneficiaries of the fund, but requests for transparency around other major EU financing initiatives have been stonewalled or delayed for years.

What are they trying to hide?

Secrecy has long been deeply embedded in the EU’s bureaucratic culture. But under von der Leyen’s presidency, concerns over the withholding of crucial documents have significantly intensified. While she attempts to project an image of herself as a staunch defender of democratic values, her reluctance to release her own communications sharply contradicts this.

Historically, of course, the EU was never intended to be a democratic entity. As we describe in our book, The Nazi Roots of the ‘Brussels EU’, its key architects were recruited from among the same authoritarian technocrats who had previously created the plans for a post-WWII Europe under the control of the Nazis. It is therefore not by accident that the design of the bloc bears a notable resemblance to the Nazi blueprint for a “total European economic area.”

As even Ursula von der Leyen herself will undoubtedly realize, any real democracy would welcome transparency, not avoid it. The longer the European Commission resists releasing her text messages, the louder will be the demands of the people of Europe to learn what it is they are trying to hide.