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The Supreme Court accepts our appeal in defense of the right of access to conventions and agreements for the resale and donation of vaccines to other countries

10/02/2025

The Supreme Court has admitted to the procedure the cassation appeal filed by the Council of Transparency and Good Government against the judgment of the National High Court that considers the appeal filed by the Spanish Drug Agency (AEMPS) and annuls the CTBG’s decision 832/2021 on access to the agreements and agreements for the resale and donation of vaccines for the coronavirus to third countries.

In that resolution, the Council considered that the claimant had the right to access a copy of the Spanish agreement with the Government of Andorra for the resale of vaccines, on the understanding that it did not request access to the terms in which the negotiation was conducted, but to its final result embodied in an Agreement in which the commitments assumed by each of the parties will be included, whose confidentiality is difficult to reconcile with constitutional values and principles such as freedom, pluralism and legal security.

The Council also considered that the Administration, by denying access by applying the limits 14.1.c) and k) of the LTAIBG, had not established any real damage or injury either to external relations or to the confidentiality or secrecy of the decision-making process, an argument that supported the judgment of the Central Administrative Court No. 1 in the first instance.

However, the National High Court upheld the appeal lodged by the AEMPS, transferring the considerations of a previous own judgment in which it stated that the Agreements on the Acquisition of Vaccines concluded by the European Commission have been published in the Community transparency portals, being classified as sensitive and censoring, among other information, the one relating to the pacts on prices, “a fact that cannot be unknown by the judgment of instance alleging internal rules of procedural law, because it is the compliance by the Spanish State with its international obligations.”

In its admission order, the Supreme Court has stated that The issue raised in the appeal that presents objective casational interest for the formation of jurisprudence consists of determining:

  • If the confidentiality clause provided for in Regulation 1049/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 on public access to documents of the European Parliament, of the Council and of the Commission applies to requests for access to public information held by the Spanish administration when the requested information is part of international agreements.
  • If Article 14(1) of the Transparency Act, which establishes a limit on foreign relations, is applied as a limit to deny access to information included in international conventions, in particular that related to the resale or donation of goods, as in the case of vaccines against Covid-19.

Consult the resolution, the sentences and the order of admission of the Supreme here