EU Court Criticizes Commission's Transparency on COVID-19 Vaccine Deals

Europe's second-top court ruled that the European Commission did not provide sufficient public access to COVID-19 vaccine purchase agreements. EU lawmakers challenged the limited and redacted access to these contracts, questioning commercial interest protections. The court determined the Commission failed to adequately weigh the involved interests.

In a significant ruling on Wednesday, Europe's second-top court stated that the European Commission failed to ensure sufficient public access to COVID-19 vaccine purchase agreements during the pandemic. The court’s decision upholds a challenge by EU lawmakers against the executive's handling of these critical deals.

During the peak of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and 2021, the EU executive signed several substantial contracts with pharmaceutical companies to secure vaccines. European Parliament lawmakers sought to review these contracts to understand their terms and conditions better. However, they were only granted partial access, with some documents heavily redacted. The Commission argued that this was necessary to protect commercial interests and the integrity of the decision-making process.

The General Court in Luxembourg found that the Commission had not convincingly demonstrated that revealing certain clauses would compromise the companies' commercial interests. Moreover, the court stated that the Commission failed to provide adequate transparency regarding the declarations by team members who negotiated the contracts, ensuring there were no conflicts of interest. The court concluded that 'the commission did not take sufficient account of all the relevant circumstances in order to weigh up correctly the interests at issue' in the cases of T-689/21 Auken and Others v Commission and T-761/21 Courtois and Others v Commission.