EU court to hear case on von der Leyen’s texts with Pfizer next month

Good morning. Today, I reveal that a legal effort to see private text messages between Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer’s CEO will come to court next month, and our trade correspondent reports on a push by four capitals to force corporate car fleets to go electric.

VDL’s texts come to court

A legal battle over the publication of private text messages between European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla during the race for procuring Covid-19 vaccines will be heard by the EU’s highest court next month.

Context: The New York Times sued the European Commission in January 2023 after the commission said it “did not hold” the text messages requested by the newspaper under a freedom of information request. The newspaper is seeking the publication of the text messages, as they could shine a light on how Brussels negotiated pandemic contracts worth billions of euros.

The European Court of Justice will hear the case on November 15, people briefed on the preparations said. It will be considered by a 15-judge grand chamber, which generally deals with highly complex cases or those deemed to be of high importance.

According to the newspaper’s reporting, Bourla said he and von der Leyen had exchanged private text messages, and von der Leyen had said she was personally involved in negotiating the vaccine purchase contracts.

The court is expected to decide on the admissibility of evidence, and then ask the commission’s legal representatives to explain whether the texts ever existed, and if so why they were not recorded. They are also expected to be asked if they were destroyed, and if so, on what grounds.

Von der Leyen’s push for Brussels to collectively buy billions of vaccines, and distribute them to EU member states struggling to contain Covid-19 has largely been seen as a success, and helped to cement her reputation as an effective, centralised manager.

But the controversy over her purported private correspondence with Bourla, whose vaccines were in huge demand at the time, has dogged her since then, and fuelled criticism from those who alleged the negotiations were not transparent and she took too much personal control.

The EU’s general court ruled in July that the commission unlawfully concealed some details of its Covid-19 vaccine procurement contracts in a separate case.

The commission declined to comment when contacted about the November hearing. The ECJ and the New York Times did not respond to requests for comment.

Chart du jour: Anxious Europeans

European households are saving at higher rates than the pre-pandemic era, according to data that highlights a clear and persistent divergence from more buoyant US consumers driving America’s economic recovery.

Greenslease

Four EU countries have proposed that the bloc should force companies to electrify their corporate car fleets in order to boost the flagging demand for low-emission vehicles, writes Andy Bounds.

Context: The EU has agreed to ban the sale of new fossil fuel-powered cars from 2035. But electric vehicle sales fell by almost a fifth in August to their lowest in three years, the fourth consecutive monthly drop.

In a letter to the European Commission seen by the Financial Times, the transport ministers of Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria focus specifically on the corporate market, which accounts for 60 per cent of annual car sales in the EU.

“The acceleration of zero-emission vehicle uptake in corporate fleets offers great potential to strengthen the EU’s industrial competitiveness, as it would increase demand for green technologies and in turn attract both jobs and investments to Europe,” the ministers write.

They note that for the third year in a row, corporate zero-emission car uptake has lagged behind the private market, despite businesses’ available financial means “to lead the transition”. National measures “do not seem to be sufficient to address this market failure”, they add.

They urge the commission to ignore pleas from Italy and some car producers to delay the 2035 zero-emission targets, and to come up with a legislative initiative on corporate fleets next year.

“Accelerating the electrification of Europe’s corporate road fleets will help us reach our decarbonisation targets, bolster our car-manufacturing base in the short to medium term, and in turn attract both jobs and investment to Europe,” said Ireland’s transport minister Eamon Ryan.

Uber, the ride-hailing platform, last month told the FT that Brussels should set “more aggressive binding targets” to electrify corporate fleets.

What to watch today

1. Eurozone finance ministers meet in Luxembourg.

2. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen participates in a memorial ceremony on the anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel.

3. European parliament plenary week kicks off in Strasbourg.

Now read these

• Baby steps: Spain has a proposition for how to unblock the EU’s elusive capital markets union and boost much needed investment.

• Wither Schengen: Germany’s expansion of border checks risks undermining freedom of movement in the EU, one of the bloc’s biggest achievements.

• ‘Outrageous’ threats: Ireland’s president has rejected Israeli calls for its UN peacekeepers to withdraw from southern Lebanon.