The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, sent a letter to the European Commission on Friday 22 January informing it that she was opening an enquiry into the institution's refusal to give public access to documents concerning the purchase of vaccines against Covid-19, following two complaints received from the NGO Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO).
With regard to the first complaint, the NGO is alleging that the European Commission denied it access to the advance purchase agreement signed with AstraZeneca, citing the need to protect the commercial interests of the company.
Challenging this decision, CEO then asked the institution to at least disclose some sections of it, on the grounds that there was an overriding public interest. This request has remained unanswered to date.
The second complaint relates to the institution's failure to respond – and thus an implied refusal – to disclose documents relating to negotiations held with pharmaceutical companies, including meeting notes and the names of members of the EU negotiating team.
Judging these complaints to be admissible, the Ombudsman has asked the Commission to take a decision on the two requests for access by 11 February 2021 at the latest, in view of “the significant public interest in this issue”.
In a second step, it will examine whether it is necessary to inspect the documents that have been requested by CEO.
Finally, the Ombudsman has asked the institution to take into account its recent decision to disclose sections of the agreement signed with CureVac (see EUROPE 12639/7).
See the Ombudsman's letter: https://bit.ly/398gW27 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)