Sinn Féin MEPs Kathleen Funchion and Lynn Boylan have welcomed the European Court of Justice ruling that the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, must disclose text messages she exchanged with the Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla prior to the multibillion Covid Vaccine Deal.
Speaking from Brussels, Ireland South MEP Funchion said:
“This is a massive victory for transparency and hopefully accountability of the Commission and sets a new precedent that the Commission must respect transparency rules in public procurement.
“The people of Europe have a right to know how decisions around such important emergency spending are made and that those decisions are made fairly and not via side deals being cut behind closed doors.
“Continued reluctance from Von der Leyen to release the messages would only serve to increase public suspicion not only of the Commission but of the EU as a whole.”
Also speaking from Brussels, Sinn Féin Dublin MEP Boylan said:
“This ruling vindicates the criticism that we in Sinn Féin, along with many others including former European Ombudsman, have placed on Von der Leyen and her Commission’s lack of transparency that surrounds their decision making.
“This ruling should help us to facilitate a better process for sharing information that brings any wrongdoing to light and also increase trust in a system that often seems very far away from the people on the ground.
“Von der Leyen’s position is significantly damaged by this result and should the messages contain anything relevant to the Covid deal, as the Commission has declared before court they do not, the President must consider her position.”
