A Belgian man has lodged a case demanding the dismissal of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen before the General Court of Justice of the European Union, seeking €100,000 in damages for his "loss of confidence" in the European institutions.
The man, Frédéric Baldan, first filed a criminal complaint against Von der Leyen on 5 April in a Belgian court, regarding the case of the undisclosed text messages she exchanged with the head of Pfizer in 2021 to negotiate a huge contract.
Now, he is taking the case to the European courts in Luxembourg, Le Vif reports.
Baldan, who is a 35-year-old European lobbyist specialising in trade relations between the EU and China, has filed a substantive application and an application for interim measures with the General Court of the European Union against the European Commission and its President Ursula von der Leyen.
The General Court of the EU is one of the two courts of the Court of Justice of the EU and has jurisdiction at first instance for actions brought by individuals or by a Member State against the Commission.
Loss of confidence in EU institutions
Baldan is asking the Court to rule on whether "the European Union has incurred non-contractual liability" towards him, meaning that the EU is liable for non-material damage suffered by Baldan as a result of the "conduct" of the European Commission and its President.
Specifically, the "conduct" referred to is the Commission's repeated refusal to pass on the text messages that Von der Leyen exchanged with Pfizer's CEO Albert Bourla in March and April 2021, just before the European Commission signed the biggest contract in its history on 7 May: a €35 billion deal to deliver 1.8 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
For Baldan, this behaviour "constitutes an attack on public morality, on the legitimate confidence of European citizens, on good administration and on transparency" and is therefore asking the Court to order the EU to pay him €100,000 "as compensation for the non-material damage it has caused him."
The moral damage, specifically, consists of "the loss of confidence in the European Union as an institutional power for achieving the common good."
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen. Credit: Belga / Thierry Roge
Previously, Von der Leyen's conduct had already been denounced publically by the European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, and then by the European Court of Auditors – which prompted the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) to open a criminal investigation into the process of acquiring Covid-19 vaccines in the EU.
In a special report on vaccine procurement published in September 2022, the European Court of Auditors found that the negotiating rules set by the Commission had been flouted by Von der Leyen.
"During March 2021, the President of the Commission led the preliminary negotiations for a contract with Pfizer/BioNTech," reads page 33 of the report. "This is the only contract for which the joint negotiating team was not involved at this stage of the negotiations, contrary to the Commission's decision on the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines."
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Baldan stressed that despite the seriousness of the case and the fact that both Von der Leyen and the European Commission are refusing to respond to the case, "Von der Leyen and all the members of the Commission are continuing in their positions."
Therefore, he is calling for the President and all the members of the Commission to be suspended "for the duration of the criminal investigation" due to begin in Belgium, and "failing that, for the duration of the main proceedings on the merits" before the EU General Court.
