There is still not enough political will in the EU to investigate the connection between Pfizer and Ursula von der Leyen

Euractiv spoke with the Croatian member of the European Parliament and member of the COVI board, Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, who said that allowing access to Pfizer, after the representatives of that company did not respond to the call, shows that the Parliament does not have enough self-respect and that the network of corrupt large corporations continues its ” business as usual.”

The heads of the European Parliament’s parliamentary groups have rejected a request by the COVI Committee to ban Pfizer from Parliament. Let us remind you that the leading managers of the company did not want to respond to the invitation to come and shed light on the communication between the head of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, after it was discovered that they exchanged private text messages during the procurement of the vaccine.

Euractiv spoke with the Croatian member of the European Parliament and member of the COVI board, Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, who said that allowing access to Pfizer, after the representatives of that company did not respond to the call, shows that the Parliament does not have enough self-respect and that the network of corrupt large corporations continues its ” business as usual.” In addition, Sinčić pointed out that the political-corporate relationship we see between the President of the Commission and Pfizer is mirrored at much lower levels.

It is sad that this invitation has been sitting with the President of the Parliament, who is calculating, for several months.

In the COVI committee, Sinčić’s current managed to prevail recently, and managed to get Ursula von der Leyen to send an invitation to the session for a public hearing.

“It was very difficult to send such an invitation in the first place, because seven coordinators of the committee decide on it, and most of them resisted it from the beginning. Only recently did our stream manage to send such an invitation and win a majority among the coordinators. It is sad that this invitation has been sitting with the President of the Parliament for several months, who is calculating,” said Sinčić.

The search is not an investigation, nor is Ms. Joureva’s statement an expert testimony.

The New York Times sued the European Commission for refusing to release the text messages, and Transparency Commissioner Vera Joureva said a search for the messages “did not yield any results.”

“The search is not an investigation, nor is Ms. Joureva’s statement expert testimony. There is still not enough political will in the EP and other EU institutions to fully investigate the case,” Sinčić emphasized, adding that the actions of the Ombudsperson and the EPPO, as well as the lawsuit by the NY Times, are steps in the right direction, but that there is still much to do.