SMS affair about vaccine procurement: EU Commission refuses further clarification
The clarification of the SMS affair about the corona vaccine procurement is difficult: The European Ombudsman accuses the EU Commission of walls.
Ursula von der Leyen’s EU Commission is facing serious allegations in connection with SMS messages about vaccine purchases worth billions. The handling of a request for access to the text leaves “the regrettable impression of an EU institution that wallows in matters of significant public interest,” said the European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly on Thursday.
Specifically, it is about a deal for up to 1.8 billion doses of corona vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer from spring 2021. The contract volume was estimated at 35 billion euros at the time. As the New York Times reported, the personal contact between von der Leyen and Pfizer boss Albert Bourla was crucial to the deal. They are also said to have exchanged text messages.
The journalist Alexander Fanta from netzpolitik.org then made a request under the Freedom of Information Act to the EU Commission for access to the text messages. However, she rejected the request. Ombudswoman O’Reilly already spoke of maladministration in January and called for clarification by the EU Commission.
EU Commission refuses information
According to O’Reilly, however, the EU Commission did not comply with this request. The authority’s most recent response does not indicate whether it properly searched for the text messages and, if not, what prevented such a search, it said on Thursday. “The Commission’s response to my investigation did not answer the fundamental question of whether the text messages in question existed, nor did it clarify how the Commission would respond to a specific request for other text messages.”
The EU Commission admitted that such SMS could also be EU documents, but also pointed out that the internal guidelines of the authority de facto do not provide for the registration of text messages. O’Reilly made recommendations as to how the EU institutions should deal with such documents in the future.
Von der Leyen’s handling of SMS
The case is also explosive because the handling of von der Leyen’s cell phone data has already been criticized. While she was Secretary of Defense, the data on one of her cell phones was erased. The Ministry of Defense justified the mobile phone deletion in 2019 with a “security incident”. Critics complained that information may have been lost in the consultant affair.
It was about allegations that the ministry had incorrectly awarded contracts and even nepotism during von der Leyen’s tenure. A parliamentary committee of inquiry of the Bundestag also dealt with this. In their assessment of the committee’s work, the FDP, Greens and Left Party came to the conclusion that misconduct in the ministry had caused financial damage in the higher double-digit millions. Von der Leyen himself had repeatedly acknowledged errors in the award of the contract, but denied any personal responsibility for them.
