More than a thousand residents of EU countries have joined a lawsuit against the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen over possible violations with COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, the initiator of the proceedings, Belgian activist Frederic Baldan said.
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“We have more than a thousand plaintiffs,” he said at a meeting with reporters.
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According to Baldan, there is evidence that the vaccines approved for use in the European Union “have not been sufficiently tested” for effectiveness in combating the pandemic. At the same time, restrictive measures were introduced, which implied mandatory vaccination and strict restrictions for those who refused it.
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“This indicates that the European Commission violated the rights of citizens from the very beginning,” the plaintiff emphasized.
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On Friday, a court hearing was held at the Palace of Justice in Liege in the case of possible violations committed by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during the procurement of vaccines against coronavirus. The trial took place behind closed doors. The head of the European Commission herself is currently on a trip abroad.
The court was unable to consider the case on the merits due to the actions of the European Prosecutor’s Office, which tried to close the proceedings in the Belgian court on the grounds that this was not its prerogative, and the position of the head of the EC gives her immunity. However, the plaintiffs insist that the case be heard on Belgian territory, where the European Commission is located and where, apparently, multi-billion dollar deals were concluded for the centralized purchase of vaccines by EU states.
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In 2021, The New York Times reported that von der Leyen and the CEO of the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Albert Bourla, discussed the largest contract for the purchase of vaccines in the history of the European Union via SMS correspondence. The head of the EC was already suspected of directly influencing the negotiation process; the scandal in the media was called Pfizergate. The total amount of the deal could reach 35 billion euros, and the 1.8 billion doses purchased significantly exceeded the needs of EU residents. Ursula von der Leyen was called upon to publish the contents of the correspondence, but the European Commission in June 2022 refused to make it public.
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In October 2022, the EU attorney general’s office announced that it was investigating the procurement of coronavirus vaccines, which the European Commission carried out centrally on behalf of all EU states. They emphasized that they released information about the investigation solely on the basis of its “public significance,” but did not disclose any details of the case.
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In addition, a separate investigation was launched in Belgium after Belgian lobbyist Frederic Baldan filed a lawsuit against von der Leyen in a local court. The plaintiff believes that the actions of the head of the EC caused economic damage to Belgium.
