The CJEU and the Pfizergate scandal: missing or deleted SMS?

Last Friday's hearing that took place at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the case of Pfizergate regarding the exchange of messages between Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and Albert Bourla - CEO of the Pfizer company, during the period when the officials of in Brussels, they were negotiating the contract for the purchase of anti-Covid vaccines, it ended without the supreme court of the EU bloc shedding light on this file, practically leaving the resolution of the case to the courts of Belgium, claims the daily France Soir, which quotes the opinions of the plaintiff Frederic Baldan and the lawyer Diane Protat.

Unfortunately, the conclusion of the two is that the CJEU does not have the authority to seize or request the Commission to hand over the text messages between von der Leyen and Bourla, especially since the Community Executive refused to confirm or deny the existence of these messages, complicating the investigations.

However, during the hearing Frederic Baldan stated in a post on the official Twitter page (X) that two new pieces of information had emerged:

- The European Commission claims that it does not own the respective messages, and the General Secretariat and Ursula von der Leyen's cabinet state that they have no knowledge of their location or format (SMS, WhatsApp, Signal, etc.).

- Ursula von der Leyen reportedly stated that her phone was replaced in 2022 without the data being transferred. In another statement, however, he claimed that his niece had mistakenly deleted those messages.

Frederic Baldan claims that von der Leyen appears to have set up the apps to automatically delete messages, which could be interpreted as an attempt to destroy administrative documents. Moreover, the European Commission invoked an invented legal concept - "short leave messages" - to justify their non-registration.

The CJEU recognized that only Belgian criminal jurisdictions can investigate this case in detail. Although the EU's administrative court can overturn the Commission's refusal to provide the messages, this could only trigger a new round of decisions that would end up back before the CJEU - a never-ending process.

In the Pfizergate case, Ursula von der Leyen is accused of violating the code of conduct for European commissioners and the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, in particular the right to transparency. Baldan and his team believe that the only correct solution would be to suspend her from office, in the context in which her actions have undermined trust in the European institutions.

We recall that in March 2023, Baldan filed a criminal complaint against Ursula von der Leyen, Albert Bourla and Pfizer, accusing them of usurpation of titles, destruction of documents and corruption. The complaint was joined by Poland, Hungary and almost 1000 other complainants. The next hearing in this proceeding is scheduled for December 6, 2024, at the Court of Liege.

The American newspaper The New York Times, which made a request for access to SMS messages exchanged between von der Leyen and Albert Bourla, did not join the criminal complaint, although it could have done so under Article 151 of the Belgian Criminal Code.