In March 2021, Ursula von der Leyen held preliminary negotiations with the boss of Pfizer about the procurement of a vaccine against the coronavirus. In practice, he discussed the details with the CEO of the pharmaceutical giant, Albert Bourla, via SMS. von der Leyen refuses to provide information on the details, and due to the lack of transparency, it may arise that the EU is in the pocket of multinational companies, Ripost reported.

For the first time, the New York Times wrote last April that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had closed the huge vaccine contract with BioNTech-Pfizer. He personally handled the signing of the contract during negotiations with Pfizer's boss, Albert Bourla.

AN INVESTIGATION HAS BEEN STARTED IN THE CASE OF A 35 BILLION EURO DEAL, BUT THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION HAS NOT FOUND THE SMS BETWEEN URSULA VON DER LEYEN AND THE CHIEF OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL GIANT COMPANY PFIZER - SAID THE EU PROFESSIONAL TO THE EU OMBUDSMAN, BETWEEN JUNE 2022 IN HIS LETTER

Even before that, at a press conference on February 16, five members of the European Parliament harshly criticized Ursula von der Leyen , the president of the European Commission, and called for her to resign because of her role in vaccine procurement. According to Lithuanian MEP Stasys Jakeliunas, the husband of President Ursula von der Leyen, Heiko von der Leyen, has been the medical director of the American biopharmaceutical company Orgenesis, which specializes in cell and gene therapies, since December 2020. He also works as a consultant for a European healthcare market consulting company.

THEREFORE, THE REPRESENTATIVE BELIEVES THAT IT IS UNACCEPTABLE FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE COMMITTEE TO NEGOTIATE THE PROCUREMENT OF VACCINE INDIVIDUALLY.

WHEN HEIKO VON DER LEYEN JOINED ORGENESIS' BOARD OF DIRECTORS, THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION HAD JUST SIGNED A SERIES OF CONTRACTS WITH PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES BETWEEN AUGUST AND NOVEMBER 2020, TWO OF THEM WITH PFIZER/BIONTECH. ORGENESIS IS CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH PFIZER THROUGH ITS INVOLVEMENT IN GENETIC THERAPIES BASED ON MESSENGER RNA.

At the mentioned press conference, Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes He said: the contracts with vaccine manufacturers (Pfizer and Moderna) contain many pages of blacked-out, obscured text.

But that's not all, because together with Ursula, the Cypriot politician Stella Kyriakides, who does not seem to be involved in suspected corruption scandals, can also easily fail It is noteworthy that it was revealed that 4 million euros appeared on the account of the Commissioner, which she could not account for . Since the Kyriakides family privatized all the oncology institutes in Cyprus and later made the treatments more expensive, they were also accused of profiting from cancer patients. So far, this case has been "laid" in Brussels, and even at the beginning, the European Commission also denied that they had entered into a contract with the manufacturers, even though the contracts included - among other things - the signature of the Cypriot commissioner.

The entire Origo article can be read here.

Image: Euronews