MP Clement filed the complaint on 14 February as he rejects the government’s explanation that only the European Union ever signed contracts for Covid-19 vaccines. He elaborated that there are appendices called ‘Vaccine Order Forms’, which each country signed individually and which retain price, quantity, as well as delivery dates for the vaccines.
After the Chamber of Deputies failed to grant him access to the appendices, the opposition politician decided to take the Health Ministry to court on the basis of the ‘Clement Instruction’ from 2021, which regulates that MPs have access to contracts signed by the government.
Though MP Clement showed himself careful about making accusations without having seen the contracts, he shared his estimation that there might have been a violation of article 99 in the constitution, which says that the government is not allowed to sign perennial agreements without first adapting a ‘special law’. He further questioned the gradual ordering of vaccines as well as the destruction of paid yet no longer needed doses by the manufacturer.
According to the politician from the Pirate Party, Luxembourg has ordered vaccines until 2024, which he said indicates the perennial nature of the agreement and thereby points towards a lacking legal base for the contract.
MP Clement finally lamented that the legal dispute will have to be fought with taxpayer money so that “one part of the government can instruct another one to adhere to the law”. He questioned what there is to hide and concluded that the Chamber would have certainly passed the special law necessary for the perennial contracts given that there was a consensus on the need for vaccines.
