Statement by the Commission on the General Court's judgments on the access to documents cases concerning the purchase agreements for COVID-19 vaccines*

The Commission takes note of the judgments of the General Court in the two cases concerning access to the COVID-19 vaccine contracts and related information.

The Commission will carefully study the Court's judgments and their implications.

In its judgments, the General Court follows the Commission on most claims. In particular, it recognises that the protection of commercial interest covers the clauses of the contracts concerning:

• The location of the production sites;
• The provisions on intellectual property rights;
• The provisions on down payments or advanced payments;
• Access to delivery schedules.

The General Court has confirmed that the Commission was entitled to provide only partial access.

It has only partially upheld the legal action on two points.

It has ruled that the Commission should have provided more explanations to justify refusing access to certain provisions in the contracts.

It has also ruled that the Commission should have provided the personal data related to the members of the negotiation teams, composed of Member State representatives and Commission officials.

In general, the Commission grants the widest possible public access to documents, in line with the principles of openness and transparency.

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.

In fact, in many cases in the past, the Court of Justice has recognised the need to protect the business interests of a contractual partner.

In any event, the Commission had provided to the European Parliament (under the Framework Agreement on relations between the two institutions) full information on the COVID-19 vaccine contracts.

In accordance with its institutional role, the Commission is responsible to ensure the absence of any conflict of interest, and also has the duty to protect the privacy and personal data of the individuals concerned.

At this stage, the Commission reserves its legal options.

* Updated on 17 July 2024 at 11:07 CEST.