The European Commission faced criticism from Europe’s second-highest court regarding transparency issues surrounding COVID-19 vaccine contracts from four years ago. This scrutiny comes on the eve of a crucial vote on Commission head Ursula von der Leyen‘s reelection bid. Some European lawmakers have been vocal about their dissatisfaction with how the Commission handled its multibillion-euro contracts, particularly its failure to disclose text messages between von der Leyen and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) CEO Albert Bourla regarding one of the agreements. In 2022, a Pfizer executive “categorically” ruled out that the pharma giant’s chief executive agreed on the European COVID-19 contract via mobile phone text messages. The Commission contends that these messages were not retained. During the height of the pandemic, ...