The European Commission did not provide sufficient public access to the details of the Covid-19 vaccine contracts, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Wednesday.
The contracts in question refer to purchase agreements made in 2020 and 2021 between the Commission and vaccine manufacturers to secure over 1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
Only partial access was granted to those documents, to not undermine commercial interests and to protect the rights to privacy of those involved in the negotiations, according to the European Commission.
The insufficient access led to actions for annulment to be brought to the General Court of the European Union by concerned Members of the European Parliament and private individuals.
The EU court has now determined the Commission has not provided sufficient evidence to support the reasoning for the lack of transparency of the contracts. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was at the centre of these discussions.
The court determined that the Commission "did not take sufficient account of all the relevant circumstances to weigh up correctly the interests at issue."
An appeal against the General Court can be made within two months and ten days of the notification of the decision.
The European Commission responded on Wednesday by "taking note" of the ruling." The EU executive claims that it "grants the widest possible public access to documents."
"In these cases, the Commission needed to strike a difficult balance between the right of the public, including MEPs, to information, and the legal requirements emanating from the Covid-19 contracts themselves, which could result in claims for damages at the cost of taxpayers' money."
The Commission also underlined that in the past, "the Court of Justice has recognised the need to protect the business interests of a contractual partner."
The ruling comes just before the important vote for MEPs on reappointing von der Leyen as the European Commission President on Thursday in Strasbourg.
