European Commission loses court challenge over effort to block vaccine contract details

July 17 (UPI) -- The European Court of Justice handed the European Commission a rare defeat on Wednesday, nullifying a decision it made to keep secret parts of its COVID-19 vaccine contracts after Green Party Parliament members demanded full access.

The court ruled to annul the commission's decision to hide portions of the terms of the vaccine contracts as Green MEPs challenged to learn the details.

"As regards the protection of the privacy of individuals, relied on by the commission to refuse, in part, access to the declarations by the members of the team who negotiated the purchase of the vaccines that they had no conflict of interests, the General Court finds that the persons who brought the action had duly demonstrated the specific purpose of the public interest in the disclosure of the personal data of the members of that team," the ruling stated.

The commission to this point had refused to reveal provisions on indemnification, claiming it would undermine commercial interests. It also declined to release details of the officials who negotiated the purchase of the vaccines because of privacy issues.

"It is important that the court has confirmed the importance of proper justification for protecting commercial interests," Green Party MEP Tilly Metz said, according to euronews . "This ruling is significant for the future, as the EU Commission is expected to undertake more joint procurements in areas like health and potentially defense."

Metz was one of the MEPs who filed the original request from the court over the previously redacted contract previously released.

"The new European Commission must now adapt their handling of access to documents requests to be in line with today's ruling," Metz said.

The loss could hurt European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in trying to win a second term leading the body after she supported blockage of certain parts of the contract.

Peter Liese, an MEP from the European People's Party which is affiliated with von der Leyen's Christian Democratic Union said the commission's decisions to meet demands from the pharmaceutical companies such as redacting some of the clauses was "justifiable" as they sought to rabidly make vaccines available.

"It is good that the commission's lawyers now analyze the judgment in detail and draw conclusions from it, but the conclusion that the Commission got everything wrong can already be disproved at first glance at the judgment," he said.