Von der Leyen will face a vote of no confidence for hiding text messages with the Pfizer CEO during the pandemic.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will face a vote of no confidence in the European Parliament on July 10, following a preliminary debate on Monday. Von der Leyen will face the vote at the request of the far-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, made up of more than 72 MEPs, who are demanding her removal from the European Executive for concealing her text messages with the CEO of Pfizer during the coronavirus pandemic .
To force a motion of no confidence, which, if successful, would bring down the entire executive, it requires a request from a tenth of the members of the European Parliament, as has happened in this case with the initiative promoted by Romanian MEP Gheorghe Piperea, of the European Conservatives and Reformists group.
However, to be approved, the motion must be supported by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, which in turn represents the majority of the members of Parliament.
In this regard, parliamentary sources consulted by Europa Press suggest that the initiative on the table has no chance of success because no group in the European Parliament, not even those most critical of the German conservative party, supports the motion as a whole.
In July 2024, the German conservative obtained the European Parliament's approval to take on a second term, although she did so with a narrow majority of 401 votes in favor (out of 707 cast), 284 votes against, 15 abstentions, and seven spoiled votes.
In any case, the motion has been formally registered and has the necessary endorsements. Now that it has been validated by the institution's services, the debate and subsequent vote have been scheduled. These will be by roll call and cannot be held before 48 hours have elapsed after the debate. Although there are several precedents for motions filed against the EU executive, none have been successful.
The motion of censure is based on the ruling of the EU General Court last May, which annulled the European Commission's decision to deny a journalist access to the content of text messages exchanged between Von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during the negotiation of contracts for the purchase of coronavirus vaccines.
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