According to local media, Frederic Baldan, who is lobbying and accredited to EU institutions, filed a lawsuit in Belgium to examine the communication records of von der Leyen’s Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
The process, which will continue with allegations such as “abuse of office and title”, “destroying public documents”, “gaining illegal benefits” and “corruption”, may lead to the lifting of von der Leyen’s immunity.
The EU Commission had procured large quantities of vaccines from some drug and vaccine manufacturers in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. The Commission had made its heaviest contract for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines with Pfizer-BioNTech.
During the negotiations for this provision, telephone messages between EU Commission President von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Burla were also on the agenda, and calls were made to the EU administration to explain the content of the messages, but the EU administration did not share these messages with the public.
EU Commission officials state that there is no rule requiring that the phone messages of the President and members of the Commission be stored, instead, only documents should be stored.
The EU Ombudsman reported at the beginning of last year that the EU Commission was exhibiting “bad management” because von der Leyen did not disclose her messaging with Burla.