"Queen of Europe" out of control
Von der Leyen's Pfizergate scandal reveals a lack of accountability in the EU Commission. The European parliament failed on its basic tasks
The EU General Court has spoken and issued a severe reprimand to Commission President von der Leyen.
Not only did she violate the EU's transparency rules, she also provided ‘varying or inaccurate information’ and fobbed the court off with ‘conjecture’.
This is pretty much the worst thing that judges can accuse the self-appointed guardian of the EU treaties of.
Basically, they are saying that von der Leyen is not taking the court seriously and is hiding the text messages to Pfizer boss Bourla. This is no way to deal with the judiciary!
But that's not even the biggest scandal.
Even more outrageous is the fact that ‘Pfizergate’, which is worth billions, will probably never be solved.
The text messages remain in the dark, the vaccine contracts remain unusable (because they are partially blacked out), the suspicion of waste of money and corruption remains.
No control
The real scandal, however, is that it could come to this. Even von der Leyen's first major scandal - the ‘advisor affair’ in Berlin - was never cleared up.
Instead of stumbling, the CDU politician fell to the top. The EU Parliament grudgingly elected her after she was parashooted to Brussels.
After the 2024 European elections, the Parliament re-elected the power-hungry ‘Queen of Europe’ - without insisting on clarification in ‘Pfizergate’. This was the original sin. MEPs waived their democratic right of scrutiny and left it to the judiciary.
No consequences
Even now that the judges have passed their judgement, all that comes out of the European Parliament is hot air.
‘The game of hide-and-seek surrounding von der Leyen's mobile phone must come to an end,’ the Greens say. ‘Covering up mistakes is wrong,’ warns the SPD. That sounds determined, but where are the consequences?
A self-confident parliament would set up a committee of enquiry and consider impeachment proceedings. But MEPs have already ticked off the coronavirus crisis before the European elections.
The whereabouts of the vaccine billions are no longer an issue...
More on the Pfizergate here (in German). The original post (in German) is here.