But some points should have been better explained / Blackening of information was done at the request of companies, as need for vaccines was immense / Overall the joint vaccine procurement was a success

The General Court of the European Union (formerly known as the Court of First Instance) has largely upheld the European Commission's decisions in matters of vaccine procurement. Many points, which were legally contested by individual Members of the European Parliament and a group of vaccine opponents from France, were deemed unobjectionable by the court. However, the court also noted that the Commission should have better explained why certain passages were blackened.

“The vaccine procurement by the European Commission was, overall, a great success. It is unimaginable what would have happened if various European countries had vaccines while others did not. It was also important that the European Commission was actively engaged throughout the pandemic, especially in the spring of 2021, to quickly secure more vaccines,” explained Peter Liese, the health policy spokesperson for the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP Christian Democrats).

“Anyone criticizing the behavior of the European Commission today should recall the situation in February and March 2021. In Israel, the United Kingdom, and the USA, there was already plenty of vaccine available, while the quantities for the European Union were still very modest. That the Commission negotiated with companies and even agreed to some of the companies' demands so that the European population could quickly receive sufficient vaccines is, in my view, justifiable. That vaccine opponents contest this is no surprise, but anyone who themselves desired protection through vaccination must question whether they would have opposed the companies' requests for the blackening of certain passages, thereby further delaying delivery. 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,” affirmed the physician and Member of the European Parliament.