NYT Sues European Commission for Disclosure of Correspondence Regarding Major Pfizer Contract

The American newspaper The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against the European Commission after the EU's executive body refused to disclose the correspondence between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. This was reported by Politico, citing the European Court's registry and sources familiar with the matter.

The New York Times filed the lawsuit at the end of January. The publication believes that the European Commission is legally obligated to release communications that might contain information about EU contracts for the purchase of coronavirus vaccines worth billions of euros.

NYT declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, noting that the paper is submitting "numerous inquiries for freedom of information." In April 2021, The New York Times reported that von der Leyen had engaged in correspondence with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla for nearly a month regarding the delivery of 1.8 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The paper stated that this "personal diplomacy" played a significant role in securing the agreement.

The contract was finalized in May and became the largest vaccine supply deal in the world, as noted by Reuters.

Following The New York Times report, netzpolitik.org journalist Alexander Fanta requested the European Commission to release the correspondence between von der Leyen and Bourla. Fanta pointed out that EU citizens have the right to access EU documents "regardless of the form in which those documents are made available." The European Commission denied the journalist's request, claiming that such documents "could not be found."

The editors of netzpolitik.org have complained to European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly, who recognized the European Commission's refusal as "poor administration." The Commission explained to the Ombudsman that text messages are not recorded in the document registry due to the "ephemeral" nature of their content.

The European Court of Auditors published a report in September 2022 stating that necessary procedures were not followed when reaching an agreement with Pfizer. Specifically, there were no preliminary negotiations involving representatives from the European Commission and EU member states. Instead, von der Leyen conducted negotiations and personally presented the outcomes to the vaccine steering committee.

The European Commission has also refused to provide any records of discussions with Pfizer, including minutes, names of experts consulted, and agreed terms of the contract, as noted in the Court of Auditors' report. The German publication Bild has also filed lawsuits against the European Commission. Editors have demanded the disclosure of documents related to negotiations concerning the purchase of vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca.

As a result, Bild obtained some documents, including emails, but the court rejected several requests.