# EU top-court adviser sides against von der Leyen in 'Pfizergate'
> An Advocate General urges dismissing the Commission's appeal over the secret Pfizer vaccine texts

**Meta:** type: event · date: 2026-06-11 · heads: Quem decide, O que não estão dizendo · 8 takes · 3 lenses · 5 regions

## Summary

On 11 June 2026, Court of Justice Advocate General Athanasios Rantos advised the [Court of Justice EU](/pt/entity/court-of-justice-eu)
to reject the Commission's appeal against a 2024 General Court ruling that found it wrongly withheld
access to COVID vaccine contracts and [Ursula Von Der Leyen](/pt/entity/ursula-von-der-leyen)'s SMS exchanges with Pfizer CEO Albert
Bourla. Rantos argued the secrecy made it impossible to verify whether the Commission's negotiators
had conflicts of interest, focusing on negotiators' names and their conflict declarations. The six
advance purchase agreements (2020–21) were worth a combined ~€71bn. AG opinions are non-binding but
followed in most cases; a final judgment is expected later in 2026. The case is a recurring
transparency liability for the [European Union](/pt/entity/european-union) executive even as von der Leyen drives the MFF and
enlargement agenda in [June European Council lands the EU budget architecture and opens the Ukraine cluster](/pt/n/euco-june-2026-mff-ukraine-cluster).

## By the numbers

- 11 June 2026 — date of the AG opinion.
- ~€71bn — combined value of the six vaccine purchase agreements.
- 2020–21 — years the contracts covered.
- 2024 — General Court ruling the Commission is appealing.

## Why it matters

A second adverse signal from Luxembourg keeps the Pfizer-texts affair alive at the top of von der
Leyen's tenure, fuelling critics who cast the Commission as opaque. A final judgment against it
would set a precedent on access to leaders' messages as official documents.

## What to watch

- Whether the Court follows the AG's non-binding opinion.
- Whether the missing text messages are ever produced.
- Political fallout for von der Leyen's second-term authority.

## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens)

### unlabelled
- **US News (Reuters)** (United States, en) — Reports the Advocate General's 11 June 2026 opinion recommending the Court of Justice reject the Commission's appeal against the 2024 ruling that it wrongly withheld vaccine contracts and von der Leyen's SMS exchanges with Pfizer's CEO.
  Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-06-11/commission-appeal-in-covid-vaccine-contract-case-should-be-dismissed-eu-court-adviser-says
- **Courthouse News** (United States, en) — 
  Source: https://www.courthousenews.com/pfizergate-eu-court-ruling-goes-against-von-der-leyen/
- **JD Supra / EDRM** (United States, en) — 
  Source: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/eu-court-rebukes-von-der-leyen-over-4837716/
- **Hungarian Conservative** (Hungary, en) — 
  Source: https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/current/pfizergate-ruling-von-der-leyen-transparency-corruption/
- **Big News Network** (Global, en) — 
  Source: https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/279118492/von-der-leyen-suffers-new-pfizergate-judgement
- **RT** (Russia, en) — 
  Source: https://www.rt.com/news/641441-eu-commission-pfizergate-case/

### Brussels, eurosceptic-leaning
- **Brussels Signal** (European Union, en) — Tracks the transparency thread closely, arguing the Commission's secrecy made it impossible to verify whether negotiators had conflicts of interest, and links it to earlier reporting that the Commission defied the original court order.
  > "EU top court adviser: Commission failed to grant the public enough access to Covid vaccine contracts."
  Source: https://brusselssignal.eu/2026/06/eu-top-court-adviser-commission-failed-to-grant-public-enough-access-to-covid-vaccine-contracts/

### pan-European right
- **European Conservative** (European Union, en) — Frames the opinion as a transparency and accountability blow to von der Leyen personally, emphasising the missing text messages and the precedent for institutional secrecy.
  > "EU court rules against von der Leyen in the historic 'Pfizergate' case."
  Source: https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/pfizergate-von-der-leyen-texts-european-court-of-justice/

## Across the graph
- Related: [[euco-june-2026-mff-ukraine-cluster]]
- Entities: Ursula Von Der Leyen, European Union, Court of Justice EU

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Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/pt/n/vdl-pfizergate-advocate-general-opinion-2026