EU top-court adviser sides against von der Leyen in 'Pfizergate'
An Advocate General urges dismissing the Commission's appeal over the secret Pfizer vaccine texts
Summary
On 11 June 2026, Court of Justice Advocate General Athanasios Rantos advised the Court of Justice EU to reject the Commission's appeal against a 2024 General Court ruling that found it wrongly withheld access to COVID vaccine contracts and Ursula Von Der Leyen's SMS exchanges with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. Rantos argued the secrecy made it impossible to verify whether the Commission's negotiators had conflicts of interest, focusing on negotiators' names and their conflict declarations. The six advance purchase agreements (2020–21) were worth a combined ~€71bn. AG opinions are non-binding but followed in most cases; a final judgment is expected later in 2026. The case is a recurring transparency liability for the European Union executive even as von der Leyen drives the MFF and enlargement agenda in June European Council lands the EU budget architecture and opens the Ukraine cluster.
By the numbers
- 11 June 2026 — date of the AG opinion.
- ~€71bn — combined value of the six vaccine purchase agreements.
- 2020–21 — years the contracts covered.
- 2024 — General Court ruling the Commission is appealing.
Why it matters
A second adverse signal from Luxembourg keeps the Pfizer-texts affair alive at the top of von der Leyen's tenure, fuelling critics who cast the Commission as opaque. A final judgment against it would set a precedent on access to leaders' messages as official documents.
What to watch
- Whether the Court follows the AG's non-binding opinion.
- Whether the missing text messages are ever produced.
- Political fallout for von der Leyen's second-term authority.