Romania's government sets up legal team ahead of litigation with Pfizer

The government of Romania established on February 8, by emergency ordinance, the creation of a team of 15 law experts from the Ministry of Finance and the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG) to manage all information that other ministries or entities may have regarding ongoing or future litigation of the Romanian state, similar to disputes such as Roșia Montană or Pfizer, Hotnews.ro reported.

"The ten law experts from the Ministry of Finance will benefit from a salary increase to compensate for the additional effort and professional stimulation, to which are added five jurists from the SGG, who will also have a salary increase," according to Mihai Constantin, the spokesperson of the government.

Last week, the government authorized the Ministry of Finance to urgently hire an experienced law firm to represent Romania in the case where Pfizer - BioNTech requests the payment of all COVID-19 vaccines purchased by the country as part of the supply contract of the European Union, signed in 2021.

Pfizer requires Romania to execute the purchase contract by paying the price for the remaining 28.94 million vaccines, in the amount of approximately EUR 564 million, according to the government.

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