The European Commission was wrong to restrict public access to certain details and clauses of contracts for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic, the EU General Court ruled, writes The Luxemburg Times.

Among the “irregularities” pointed out was the “partial” refusal to disclose the declarations of absence of conflict of interest of the members of the European executive responsible for negotiating these purchases with the pharmaceutical companies.

“The Commission did not give the public sufficiently wide access to the contracts for the purchase of vaccines against Covid-19”, the Luxembourg-based court said in its ruling.

The case was brought by a group of MEPs and individuals, including Luxembourg MEP Tilly Metz. They had initially asked the Commission in 2021 to give them access to all the documents that would enable them to understand the terms and conditions of the purchases and to “ensure that the public interest was protected”.

They were relying on a 2001 European regulation on public access to documents of the EU"s three main institutions (Parliament, Council and Commission).

The reluctance of the Commission - which had accepted only “partial access” to the documents, “put online in redacted versions” - subsequently convinced the applicants to take their case to court.

On Wednesday, in two rulings, the European judges partially vindicated the plaintiffs, annulling the Commission decisions as “containing irregularities”.

These purchases of vaccines against Covid-19 date back to 2020 and 2021. These were group purchases negotiated by the Commission on behalf of the 27 member states.