2023 discharge: General budget of the EU - Commission

Tabled by Virginie Joron, Julien Sanchez, Nikola Bartůšek, Anders Vistisen

Added: 1 b. Deplores the scandal of the purchase of 4.6 billion doses of Covid vaccine for 71 billion euros by the President of the Commission and the recent purchase of a further 146 million doses for an unknown amount ; Whereas the European Commissioner for Health testified on 27/03/2023 before the COVI Special Committee that President Von der Leyen was not involved in any COVID vaccine contract negotiations, contrary to the information published by the New York Times (28/04/2021) and the conclusions of the European Court of Auditors in its special report on the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines; whereas the Commission has required certain Members of Parliament on the COVI Committee to sign a confidentiality undertaking on May 30, 2023, without specifying an end date for this confidentiality obligation concerning an indemnity paid per dose by Europeans to Pfizer in exchange for the non-delivery of certain doses still to be delivered ; expresses its disappointment at the Commission's persistent lack of transparency regarding the agreements it has concluded with the pharmaceutical companies responsible for producing COVID-19 vaccines, as well as the SMS communications between the Commission President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, to the extent that legal action has tarnished the Commission's reputation when the President could easily have explained herself to Parliament; deplores the Commission's inaction in relation to the serious side-effect victims of COVID vaccines in terms of medical research and compensation; deplores the fact that the Commission has chosen to defend Pfizer rather than the Member States in the legal dispute between them over the refusal to order doses of vaccine no longer needed after the end of the pandemic; notes the extreme slowness of the European Public Prosecutor's Office in investigating the purchase of COVID vaccines or the Qatar scandal;

Wording as published by the EP, in English. PE772.532