Prime EU well being officers are calling for larger transparency into the bloc’s largest contract for COVID vaccines — one which European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen took a private position in negotiating.
“What was promised? We would like to know,” stated Pierre Cartuyvels, deputy everlasting consultant for Belgium, concerning the multibillion-euro contract with BioNTech/Pfizer, throughout a gathering of EU well being officers in Brussels on Friday.
It was some extent picked up by Irish Well being Minister Stephen Donnelly, who stated that the shortage of transparency across the contract negotiations might present “gas for misrepresentation,” even when the result’s “demonstrably prudent and justified.”
The deal in query, for as much as 1.8 billion doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, has already come beneath intense scrutiny. Earlier this yr, a European Courtroom of Auditors report famous the Fee’s refusal to launch any particulars about von der Leyen’s position in its negotiations. In April 2021, the New York Instances reported that the Fee chief exchanged textual content messages with Albert Bourla, the chief government officer of Pfizer, within the run-up to the deal.
The EU’s COVID vaccine purchases are additionally beneath investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Workplace, although it has not but specified who’s being investigated or which of the EU’s vaccine contracts are beneath scrutiny.
The present vaccine glut “uncovered the weak point of agreements negotiated by the Fee,” stated Polish Well being Minister Adam Niedzielski.
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