The European Parliament, in a vote on July 10, rejected a motion of censure against the Ursula von der Leyen European Commission.
In the 720-seat European Parliament, 553 MEPs voted – 175 in favour, 360 against, with 18 abstentions.
For the vote to have been approved, at least 480 MEPs – two-thirds of the members of the House – would have had to have voted in favour.
This was the first vote of censure of the Von der Leyen Commission, and was tabled largely on the basis of her refusal to provide access to messages exchanged with pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer regarding the supply of more than a billion doses worth several billion euro during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The rejected motion, tabled by Romanian MEP Gheorghe Piperea from the eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists group, called on the Commission to resign “due to repeated failures to ensure transparency and to its persistent disregard for democratic oversight and the rule of law within the Union”.
In the debate on the vote on July 7, Von der Leyen said that representatives of all EU countries were involved in negotiating the supplies.
She said that every contract negotiated was examined in detail in all EU capitals before being signed by each of the 27 EU member states.
“There were no secrets, no hidden clauses, no obligation to buy for member states,” she told the European Parliament.
According to Von der Leyen, this motion supported by enemies of the EU, among whom she named Russia.
“We can follow Mr Piperea down his world of conspiracies and alleged sinister plots… or we can clearly call this out for what it is: another crude attempt to drive a wedge between our institutions,” Von der Leyen said.
