Brussels: Europe and  Arabs

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen single-handedly negotiated with BioNTech-Pizer the European Union contract for nearly one billion doses of the coronavirus vaccine. Von der Leyen refused to explain this to the European Court of Auditors.

According to European media reports in Brussels on Tuesday, there was a negotiating team in which member states were represented. But that was not initially involved in negotiations with Pfizer over the purchase of Corona vaccines.

And local media in Brussels said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had done it herself. This is evidenced by a report on the purchase of corona vaccines by the European Union published on Monday and published by the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. Requests for clarification from the European Court of Auditors were not answered. The European Court wrote about the outcome of its questions to von der Leyen: "We received nothing."

According to the Belgian newspaper, Newsblad, "The European ombudsman has already opened an investigation into von der Leyen's role in negotiations with BioNTech-Pfizer. The head of the commission then refused to grant access to her text messages she sent to the CEO of the pharmaceutical giant." This rejection is mismanagement.

Von der Leyen took over after Pfizer and AstraZeneca's first deliveries were delayed. I called Albert Burla, CEO of Pfizer/BioNTech directly in March 2021.

Talks between van von der Leyen resulted in a contract of 900 million doses of vaccine for 2022 and 2023, the largest deal signed by the Commission. Therefore, the Pfizer vaccine is also the most important in Europe. The purchase was eventually approved by the European Union countries.

Criticism of Von der Leyen is the main flaw reported by the court in its report on the EU's vaccine strategy since 2020.

Overall, the EU acted "effectively" in purchasing vaccines when the coronavirus pandemic broke out in early 2020.