European Commission misses appeal deadline in "Pfizergate" case

The European Commission has missed the deadline to appeal an EU General Court ruling concerning President Ursula von der Leyen’s text message exchanges with Pfizer’s CEO during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, the court’s May judgment will stand. The ruling found that the Commission failed to adequately explain why the messages between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla did not contain information significant enough to warrant retention, according to the latest report by POLITICO.

The case, dubbed "Pfizergate," arose after reporters sought access to these messages following a 2021 New York Times interview in which von der Leyen disclosed her text exchanges with Bourla prior to the approval of a multibillion-euro vaccine deal between Pfizer and the EU.

Transparency advocates criticised the Commission for a lack of accountability, while opponents of the vaccine used the controversy to question the Commission’s actions.

The EU courts confirmed that the deadline to challenge the decision at the Court of Justice — the EU’s highest judicial body — passed earlier this month without an appeal from the Commission.

In early July, von der Leyen faced a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament over the matter, initiated by Romanian right-wing MEP Gheorghe Piperea. Although von der Leyen survived the vote with strong parliamentary support, it marked the first occasion she publicly addressed the controversy, calling some allegations against her "simply a lie."

Whether the messages will be disclosed remains uncertain. The court acknowledged the difficulty in retrieving the texts. A Commission spokesperson stated that, following the ruling, the Commission will provide a more detailed explanation regarding why it does not possess the requested documents.

The spokesperson also emphasised that the court did not challenge the Commission’s document access policies and reaffirmed the EU executive’s commitment to transparency, accountability, and clear communication with EU institutions, civil society, and interest groups.

By Tamilla Hasanova