Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are raising questions over the European Union's Pfizer vaccine contracts with one calling for the resignation of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for alleged "corruption." .From Germany, von der Leyen has served as president of the commission since 2019 and before that, served in the German federal government from 2005 to 2019. She is also a current member of the Board of Trustees with the World Economic Forum. .The European Public Prosecutor's Officer (EPPO) confirmed in a Friday tweet, it is investigating "the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines in the European Union." ."This exceptional confirmation comes after the extremely high public interest. No further details will be made public at this time." .Belgian MEP Kathleen Van Brempt, who is also chair of the special committee on COVID-19, shared the EPPO's post on Friday and said the committee "will be following this case with great attention." ."Several aspects of the 3rd Pfizer contract deserve looking into, the text messages between the Commission President and the fact that there is no paper trail of the preliminary negotiations in first instance," Van Brempt tweeted. ."We need to know why the biggest contract is the least transparent. We need to understand why the EU is obliged to buy 1.8 billion Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, regardless of the needs, regardless of whether new and better players have entered the market.".Van Brempt goes on to question why, with the Pfizer contracts, the EU deviated "from the normal procedure for a contract ... for a period were all would already be vaccinated (2022 and 2023)." .Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes on Saturday also shared his concerns on Twitter citing what he called "BIG problems" related to von der Leyen and the Pfizer contracts. .Using the hashtag #UrsulaMustResign in the tweet, Terhes highlighted there was "no transparency of contracts," that evidence was deleted, and "the 'obligation' to buy from Pfizer" concludes, in his opinion, the "@EU_Commission is corrupt." .On Tuesday, Terhes posted another tweet and included a video of a speech he delivered to the European Parliament. ."Ursula @vonderleyen must resign, since her actions are criminally investigated by @EUProsecutor," Terhes wrote in his tweet. ."She signed contracts to purchase 4.6 billion COVID vaccine doses worth €71 [billion], contracts that are still not fully released to the public and MEPs.".In his speech, Terhes said von der Leyen needs to "immediately and unconditionally resign" as president of the European Commission. .Reading from a report released from the Court of Auditors, Terhes said, von der Leyen "purchased ten doses of vaccine for every EU citizen based on contracts that were never released to the public.".Terhes then held up what appeared to be heavily-redacted contract documents. ."How is this possible in a European Union that is called to be transparent with the way it's using people's money," he said. .In June, the Western Standard did an in-depth look into the Government of Canada's procurement of COVID-19 vaccines. .READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: COVID vaccine contracts and wasted doses costing Canadian taxpayers billions.Investigations into Canada's vaccine contracts revealed that, between Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccines, the federal government has committed to procuring up to 100 million doses for 2022 and up to 95 million for 2023. .Michèle LaRose, with Public Service and Procurement Canada (PSPC), said the agency led negotiations and finalized agreements with all COVID-19 manufacturers, but did not disclose the amount of doses Canada is obligated to pay for with each supplier, nor for any future contractual yearly commitments..Senior media relations advisor with the Public Health Agency of Canada, Tammy Jarbeau, told the Western Standard the Canadian government set up advance purchase agreements (APAs) with Moderna, Novavax, Medicago, Pfizer-BioNTech, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca, and said the APAs have the "obligation of a contract, but are more flexible in structure." .According to LaRose, original agreements with vaccine suppliers "also required initial investments to support vaccine research, development and testing" and indicated that some of the procurement contracts are "firm" while others are "flexible" but did not provide any other details..The Western Standard inquired with PSPC as to how much each dose is costing taxpayers, but was denied the information.."In order to protect our negotiating position and commercially sensitive pricing information, as well as to respect confidentiality clauses in our vaccine agreements, we cannot disclose details of specific agreements, including financial details at this time," said LaRose.."Throughout our response to the pandemic, the Government has remained committed to being as open and transparent as possible while ensuring that our priority is squarely focused on effectively and efficiently securing equipment and supplies needed to protect Canadians.".LaRose said transparency and accountability is "critically important to the government" but said the government "cannot disclose cost per dose." .Last week, at the European Union’s COVID-19 response, Pfizer’s president of international developed markets, Janine Small, admitted its vaccine had never been tested before its release to the general public on its ability to prevent the transmission of COVID..READ MORE: Notley still promoting vaccines after Pfizer admits its vax was never tested to stop transmission.“Regarding the question around did we know about stopping immunization before it entered the market … no,” Small admitted to Dutch politician and a current Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Robert Roos..“In a COVID hearing in the European Parliament, one of the Pfizer directors just admitted to me at the time of introduction, the vaccine had never been tested on stopping the transmission of the virus," Roos said on Twitter.."Millions of people worldwide felt forced to get vaccinated because of the myth that ‘you do it for others.’ Now, this turned out to be a cheap lie.".The CEO of Pfizer refused to testify in front of the EU parliament.
