The crown slips: How queen Ursula failed her transparency test

EU Confidential

POLITICO

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.4 • 175 Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Those text messages Ursula von der Leyen didn’t want to share? The EU’s top court says that’s not OK. In a win for transparency advocates, Europe’s judges have ruled that the European Commission was wrong to hold back von der Leyen’s text exchanges with Pfizer’s CEO during vaccine contract negotiations. POLITICO health reporter Mari Eccles joins host Sarah Wheaton to unpack what the ruling means for Brussels, for von der Leyen’s leadership style, and for how the EU handles power behind the scenes. Then we turn to Poland, where voters are preparing for a high-stakes presidential election. Calling in from Warsaw is Andrzej Bobiński, managing director at Polityka Insight. Joining Sarah in the studio is Małgorzata Bonikowska, president of the Centre for International Relations, a Polish think tank. Together they break down what’s at stake for Donald Tusk’s government — and why this vote is seen as a bellwether for Europe’s political direction and a potential reshaping of regional alliances. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:48.8	Here at Politico, we sometimes call the president of the European Commission, Queen Ursula.
0:56.3	This week, European judges took her down just a tiny peg.
1:04.8	Love or a hater, it's hard to argue that Ursula Fonder Lyon takes a transparent, open approach to
1:10.7	leading the
1:11.1	EU's bureaucracy. And nothing has typified her style more than the so-called Pfizer-Gate case.
1:17.8	It's what we call the commission's refusal to share her texts with the top pharma CEO from the
1:23.0	height of negotiations over buying billions of coronavirus vaccines. Now the verdict is in, and the EU's court
	...

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