MEPs prepares no-confidence vote against Commission President Ursula
(MENAFN) A group of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) is preparing to hold a no-confidence vote against European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, primarily over her handling of a COVID-19 vaccine agreement with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, according to multiple reports.
The motion, introduced by Romanian MEP Gheorghe Piperea, is scheduled for debate on July 7, with a vote expected to take place on July 10 during a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Von der Leyen has faced criticism over a lack of openness in pandemic-era decision-making, particularly for declining to disclose text messages exchanged with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during 2021 negotiations on a multi-billion-euro vaccine procurement contract. The backlash intensified after the European Union’s Court of Justice ruled in May that the Commission had failed to adequately justify why the texts were withheld.
“The Commission cannot merely state that it does not hold the requested documents but must provide credible explanations,” the court ruled. Piperea argued that the Commission’s continued refusal to release the communications signaled “a continued pattern of institutional overreach, democratic disregard, and erosion of public trust in the Union’s governance.”
While Piperea successfully gathered the minimum 72 MEP signatures required to initiate the motion, the measure is widely expected to be symbolic. For it to succeed, it would need the backing of a two-thirds majority of votes cast, along with support from more than half of the 720 total MEPs.
Even though the odds are slim, Piperea called the upcoming vote a “crucial opportunity for constructive and substantiated criticism towards President von der Leyen.”
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