European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen does not have to answer the controversy surrounding the procurement of Pfizer vaccines in a public hearing. The decision of the conference of presidents - of which the leaders of all European party families and the president of the European Parliament are also members (Would this be the political committee of the EU? - ed.) - was widely criticized by MEPs, saying that the president cannot be held responsible. Officials and lobbyists of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer can still visit the parliament buildings.
The President of the European Parliament justified the decision by saying that the procedure had been taking place behind closed doors until now, which is why it is not justified to hear the President in the plenary session of the EP or in front of the Covid-19 parliamentary committee.
The explanation is rather ironic, given that the controversy surrounding the commission's deal with Pfizer arose precisely because of the lack of transparency. Even in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, Brussels signed a €35 billion contract with the vaccine company, which was for the immediate withdrawal of 900 million BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines, with the option to purchase another 900 million doses. With the abatement of the pandemic, a significant number of these are gathering dust in warehouses, and the union is desperately trying to extract concessions from Pfizer to stop further shipments - with little success.
Von der Leyen played an unusually large role for the commission president when concluding the deal, according to an April 2021 article in The New York Times, he exchanged several messages with the CEO of Pfizer.
The American newspaper sued the committee just a few days ago because Brussels refuses to release the contents of the messages and correspondence. The case, also referred to as Pfizergate, casts an extremely bad light on the German president of the committee, and the fact that the leaders of the EP defend Von der Leyen tooth and nail only further worsens the board's reputation, which is already in deep flight due to the corruption scandal.
The leaders of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the European People's Party, and Let's Renew Europe, all involved in the largest and ever-expanding corruption scandal in the history of the European Union, also voted against the public hearing.
On the other hand, the European Conservatives and Reformists and the Identity and Democracy party families tried to make the chairman of the committee accountable to the public, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
The decision of the conference of presidents provoked the protest of many representatives, mostly members of the Covid-19 parliamentary committee.
Ursula von der Leyen made a multibillion-euro deal with European taxpayers' money. The European Parliament has the duty to hold him accountable, but a secret meeting behind closed doors is not the same as accountability, said right-wing Dutch MEP Robert Roos. The indignation of the members of the coronavirus committee is justified, since the committee was created precisely to clarify the contradictions related to vaccine procurement, and such decisions make their work completely impossible.
Source : Hungarian Nation
Featured image: YouTube
