Explosive revelation: EU health ministers revolt against Von Der Leyen over the opacity of Covid contracts
During a meeting held in Brussels a week ago, the health ministers of the European Union rose up against Von Der Leyen, president of the European Commission, demanding full transparency on the contracts of Covid-19 vaccines signed with laboratories during the pandemic.
Will the vaccine contracts signed between Von der Leyen and the labs end up triggering a real revolt within the European Union? The question arises less than 24 hours after the revelation of the media Lecourrier-du-soir.com which made it known that the Italian government now requires that compensation for side effects be borne by laboratories and not by States. This is at least the statement made by Orazio Schillaci, Italian Minister of Health, during a meeting in Brussels.
But, apparently, this story is more serious than we think. Indeed, according to the Politico media, the European Union's health ministers, under pressure from their fellow citizens, can no longer digest the omerta and opaque management of the multi-billion euro contracts signed between the European Commission European and major laboratories including Pfizer.
“High EU health authorities are calling for greater transparency regarding the vaccine contracts signed by the bloc, contracts personally negotiated by Ursula Von De Leyen, current President of the European Commission”, informs the source.
Behind the scenes in the EU, health authorities in several European countries say they have lost patience and want to know what has been negotiated. Among them is Pierre Cartuyvels, Deputy Permanent Representative of Belgium to the EU. “What was promised? We would like to know”, he declared during a meeting which brought together the ministers of health of the European Union.
Apparently, Cartuyvels was not the only one to be indignant. The Irish Minister of Health, Stephen Donneelly, also denounced the lack of transparency in this affair. For the latter, the lack of information on these contracts could call into question the representativeness of MEPs.
Lecourrier-du-soir.com wishes to point out that it had already been informed of this meeting of European Ministers of Health by the Pink.Pharmaintelligence.informa.com media which informed us, on December 06, that the ministers present raised the issue of dose supplies, demanding that the EU make them more flexible.
As a reminder, it is not only the Ministers of Health who are offended by the lack of transparency in the purchase of vaccines by the European Commission. Last April, a group of MEPs had already lodged a complaint against the same Commission, demanding that light be shed on a case that had become a state scandal in several European countries.
This is at least the information that our media obtained, on December 06, from several reliable sources, including the EUObserver media . According to this source, the complaint was filed by five MEPs from the ecology party The Greens who are demanding that the European Commission reveal the price of the vaccines, the deposits paid to the labs, the donations (of vaccines granted to the countries underdeveloped countries), State responsibility (in the event of secondary effects) and compensation.
Speaking about this complaint, which received very little media coverage, the Danish MEP, Margrete Auken, denounces the opacity surrounding these contracts. “Confidentiality breeds distrust and skepticism,” she warns. MPs who backed the complaint include Kim van Sparrentak, Tilly Metz, Jutta Paulus and Michele Rivasi, among others.
It must be said that the initiative of the five MEPs has no chance of succeeding following the recent decision by Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, to refuse to testify before the European Parliament. In any case, this was revealed on December 5 by the Politico media, which says it consulted a letter written by the boss of the American laboratory.
“Since the hearings last October, we no longer have any information to share with the committee. Accordingly, I politely decline the invitation to address this topic again,” writes Bourla. And this is not the first time that the boss of Pfizer categorically refuses to respond to the European Parliament on this extremely sensitive subject. Indeed, last October, Bourla had also torn up a summons from the EU to answer questions from Parliament
- Source : Sheikh Dieng
