The European Commission faces mounting pressure to release unredacted versions of its extensive agreements worth billions for securing Covid-19 vaccines, as the advisor to the bloc's highest court recommends rejecting the executive's challenge to an earlier decision.

In an opinion issued on Thursday (11 June), Advocate General Athanasios Rantos at the European Court of Justice advised that a 2024 judgment mandating broader access to the vaccine purchase contracts should stand without alteration.

Back in July 2024, the EU's highest court determined that the executive branch had failed to provide adequate public access to the deals arranged for acquiring Covid-19 vaccines.

Five Green MEPs launched the legal action against the commission in 2021 to obtain documents concerning the collective vaccine procurement efforts.

Initially, the commission released only heavily edited copies of the agreements, citing concerns over commercial secrecy and the privacy of officials who negotiated the terms.

The court further noted that messages exchanged between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who handled a 35 billion euro vaccine arrangement outside standard procedures, should also have been made available.

Throughout the health crisis, the commission secured deals with companies such as Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Moderna for as many as 4.6 billion vaccine doses at a total cost of 71 billion euros across the 27 member states.

Rantos observed that the commission failed to show how revealing indemnification clauses would lead to manipulative legal actions or heighten liability risks for the pharmaceutical firms involved.

He also pointed out that anonymized conflict of interest declarations would not sufficiently allow verification of the negotiation team's impartiality in practice.

Although such opinions do not bind the judges, courts seldom diverge from them in actual rulings.

The commission, which has so far released only versions omitting negotiator names and certain liability provisions, filed an appeal to sidestep the original order.

Like other entities, the commission rushed to acquire vaccines, protective gear, and medical equipment in spring 2020, often setting aside usual rules and leading to waste through overpricing and misconduct in some cases.

The commission maintained that it had balanced public and parliamentary access rights against contractual obligations that might expose taxpayers to compensation claims.