The Court of Justice of the European Union has just ruled that the European Commission was wrong to reject a request from the New York Times to access messages between Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla from Jan. 1, 2021 and May 11, 2022. “Pfizergate” has been wound up to represent the EU’s issues with accountability at its top levels…
Co-conspirators used to firing FoIs will be familiar with the case:
“The Court notes that the Commission’s replies regarding the text messages requested throughout the procedure are based either on assumptions or on changing or imprecise information. By contrast, Ms Stevi and The New York Times have produced relevant and consistent evidence describing the existence of exchanges, in the form of text messages in particular, between the President of the Commission and the CEO of Pfizer in the context of the procurement of vaccines by the Commission from that company during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have thus succeeded in rebutting the presumption of non-existence and of non-possession of the requested documents.”
The Commission has lost on all counts in the ruling – the case was brought to the ECJ in January 2023. Two months to appeal now…
Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked John Healey: “Just finally, I mean Andy Burnham has been very clear he wants Britain back in the European Union in his lifetime. Do you?”
The Chancellor replied: “I’m older than Andy Burnham. I don’t expect to see that.”