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From the Leyens Week, through private jetskandal, Pfizerergate decision

From the Leyens Week, through private jetskandal, Pfizerergate decision

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The scandal about the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Council, António Costa, and the president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, increases the decision of the trio to use a private jet for a two -hour trip from Brussels to Luxembourg. As Political According to reports, the three flew from Brussels to Luxembourg and back on board a chartered flight to take part in an event last Friday.

According to Paula Pinho, chief spokesman for the Commission, the decision to charter a flight was due to contradictory schedules from the EU leader and Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden. 'The idea was that the three presidents together with Prime Minister Luc Frieden in Luxembourg wanted to celebrate Schuman Day. Due to the planning restrictions for all three presidents and the Prime Minister, the only travel option that enabled them to take part in the Schuman declaration of commemoration was to take a charter flight. ” Political Pinho quoted. She added that despite the significantly larger ecological footprint, the decision was justified as an extraordinary case and as the only sustainable path to ensure its presence.

This is not the first time that the use of private jets is criticized by the EU leader in Brussels -especially as an EU champions Green Transport and has undertaken to reduce institutional emissions under his climate boons. German media business in March 2023 The mirror revealed that 57 private flights had undertaken from the Leyen in just two years.

In the same month, Political Also reported that former Council President Charles Michel had used 28 foreign trips in 2022 Charter air rides, including the COP27 climate summit in Egypt and the COP26 meeting in Glasgow.

Pfizerergate is ahead

What makes the recent incident even more uncomfortable for the Commission is that the Leyen is currently waiting for a decision in the so -called “Pfizergate”. The judgment expected on Wednesday could prove to be a reputation.

In the middle of the Covid 19 pandemic, Brussels signed a contract of over 35 billion euros with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer for the urgent delivery of 900 million Biontech/Pfizer vaccine doses with an option for another 900 million. Much of this supply is now not used during the pandemic, and the EU desperately tries to stop the further deliveries with Pfizer.

From the Leyen played an unusually outstanding role for a commission president in the mediation of the business after exchanging several text messages with the Pfizer CEO The New York Times In April 2021. In February 2023, the US outlet sued the European Commission because it refused to disclose the content of this news and the associated correspondence.

When the guilty points finger

These two controversial – spizered tubes and the private jet affair – have the hypocrisy of Brussels bureaucrats and their allies in Hungary when he criticized the leadership of the country. The Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Spés Szijjártó has repeatedly been shot because he did not use commercial flights, even if his diplomatic schedule demands the meetings in Washington and Moscow within one day. In the meantime, the primary justification of the European Commission for the retention of EU funds from Hungary was the alleged corruption of the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

However, the past few years have brought scandals that indicate that the putrefaction could be elsewhere – from Qatargate to corruption controversy around the EPP leader Manfred Weber and even Pfizergate. These examples are increasingly indicating a leadership of the European Union, which is entangled in corruption, which it claims against the present.

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