A Belgian lobbyist filed a complaint directly against European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen before a Belgian court in a case that could have her immunity lifted and text messages exchanged with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla examined.
Von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla came under suspicion of having directly negotiated a €1.8 billion contract extension for additional doses to EU countries via text messages, though the Commission has so far only been subject to administrative complaints because of this.
Frédéric Baldan, a Belgian lobbyist accredited to the European institutions, has decided to pursue von der Leyen on a personal level as he believes the alleged offences have undermined his country’s public finances and public trust, which is defined in the complaint as “collective faith in the state as an institutional power to work for the common good”.
Baldan filed his complaint before the first instance court in Liege on 5 April.
The judge must investigate and cannot say that the complaint is inadmissible, explained Diane Protat, a lawyer at the Paris bar, in an interview alongside Baldan for France Soir on 14 April – meaning the judge may have to ask for the waiver of von der Leyen’s immunity to carry out the investigation.
“SMSgate takes a criminal turn. The European Commission President is accused of ‘usurpation of functions and title’, ‘destruction of public documents’ and ‘illegal taking of interests and corruption’. To be followed, as is the ongoing investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office,” said MEP Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA) on Twitter.
Usurpation of functions and titles
According to the lobbyist, von der Leyen has acted outside the EU treaties and beyond her mandate on behalf of the member states, including Belgium, of which he is a national.
Regarding health matters, EU treaties give the Union a supporting competence, meaning it is not an exclusive or shared competence with states.
According to Baldan, member states mandated the Commission to conclude a framework contract for the purchase of vaccines on their behalf, not von der Leyen herself.
Yet, according to EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, von der Leyen did not participate in negotiating COVID vaccine contracts.
Destroying public documents, corruption
Regarding the controversial text messages which have already been requested by the European Ombudsman and the European Court of Auditors, but in vain, Baldan argues that if von der Leyen deleted them, this would amount to destroying administrative documents.
If she simply does not want to disclose them, Baldan says von der Leyen would be acting as a public who arbitrarily infringes rights enshrined in the constitution – a criminal offence under the Belgian criminal code.
And if von der Leyen refuses to reveal the messages because they are private, then they would show an intimate relationship between von der Leyen and Bourla, which would amount to a serious conflict of interest in contract negotiations, he added.
In his complaint, Baldan also points to the special privilege Pfizer received as a vaccine supplier to the EU. Of the 40.4 million COVID-19 vaccine shots Belgium received from all manufacturers in 2022, 27.9 million were from Pfizer, data from the Sciensano Public Health Institute reads.
Baldan also told EURACTIV that he would ask the investigating judge in charge of the case to consult the text messages, which he can legally do in the framework of an investigation.
The lobbyist – who is asking for €50,000 for his moral damage – decided to act after attending a conference organised last year at the European Parliament in Strasbourg by Identity and Democracy (ID) MEPs Virginie Joron and Christine Anderson notably addressing the side effects of the vaccine. He felt that there was a problem with European democracy and the way the Commission dealt with the situation.