While Poland thought it had turned the page on the Covid-19 epidemic, the verdict handed down by Belgian justice this week sent it back to the era of the vaccine race.
It is the pharmaceutical company Pfizer that sued the Poles in 2023 for not honoring its vaccine purchase contract. And the sentence is severe: they now owe 1.3 billion euros to the American company.
Appearing angry upon learning the bad news about his country, Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domański spoke out: “Consequently, we are presenting today a bill of six billion zlotys (1.3 billion euros) to Poland. And every family, and every Polish retiree may potentially have to pay this bill.”
The events date back to 2023, during the purchase of a common European vaccine overseen by Brussels. When Warsaw realized that it had overestimated the needs to vaccinate its population, it refused to receive – and therefore to pay – 64 million doses that had been ordered.
European MP Michał Wawrykiewicz denounces a timing problem with heavy repercussions. “The government of PiS expressed its intention to withdraw from the European purchasing agreement too late, just days before. If they had acted earlier, there would not have been such economic consequences,” he asserts.
On the PiS side, former European Parliament member Zbigniew Kuźmiuk points to the exceptional nature of the situation to explain decisions taken under pressure and in urgency. “We were backed into a corner, like all other countries in the European Union, told that either we participated in the joint purchase, or we would have zero access to vaccines.”
The Ministry of Health appealed, but should nonetheless be obliged to pay while awaiting the second verdict. Romania was also condemned on the same occasion and for the same reasons. It owes Pfizer 600 million euros.
