Seven MEPs of the Greens with an open letter addressed to European Commissioner responsible for Transparency, are asking the EU to immediately conduct an investigation into the commercial activities of Heiko Von Der Leyen, husband of Ursula Von Der Leyen, current President. of the European Commission. It is of course about her a dark affair which we had uncovered, with the mammoth funding that (also) the Mitsotakis government gave to this particular company from public money!
From the MEPs’ question, however, it appears that Orgenesis Inc., which operates under the management of her husband Ursula, Heiko Von Der Leyen, he had benefited from a total of €320 million in funding from the European Commission, which of course is run by his wife! This is where the case takes on the dimension of a dizzying scandal, perhaps the biggest since the EU was founded.
The Mitsotakis government gave this company with express procedures the colossal amount of €32 million. There are not a few who speak of an apparent entanglement, where Mitsotakis distributes millions to Ursula’s husband’s company and she, in turn, turns a blind eye in the outrageous scandals of the Mitsotakis government, the interceptions, the disposal of the resources of the recovery fund, the direct assignments which are made in violation of the rules set by the Commission, etc. Indicative is the fact that of the total of 9 billion direct assignments, according to the competent auditing authorities of Greece, only 1.7% refers to needs due to a pandemic!
The MEPs’ letter
At a time when the European Parliament just rocked by a serious corruption case involving high-profile figures, the 7 MEPs demand that the European Union examine the activities of Heiko Von Der Leyen, husband of Ursula Von Der Leyen, of a personality that, among other things, is increasingly criticized for opaque management of the vaccine contracts it signed with Pfizer.
In his shadow Qatargatethe seven MEPs demand that light be shed on the company of a man whose activities are more than doubtful. Thus, with a letter posted on Twitter on December 16, the 7 MEPs do not mince their words and they target Orgenisis, the company of which Von Der Leyen’s husband is medical director.
“We are particularly concerned about the publication of press articles in Italy and Germany about the commercial activity in EU countries of Orgenesis Inc., an American company that employs Mr. Heiko Von Der Leyen, wife of the President of the European Commission».
In the letter, the MEPs referred to the recent scandal revealed at the end of last October by Lecourrier-du-soir.com and refer to presence of Heiko Von Der Leyen on the supervisory board of a foundation that received funding of more than 300 million euros. from the European Commission, led by his wife, Ursula Von Der Leyen!
Faced with strong media pressure, Heiko Von Der Leyen had eventually resigned his position, but his company (Orgenesis Inc.) remains at this institution. A detail that did not escape the attention of the seven deputies who clearly underlined it in their letter.
“According to Italian media, although Mr Von der Leyen resigned from the foundation’s supervisory board, Orgenesis Italy SRL continues to be part of the project and receives grants of up to 200,000 euros per year from the Italian recovery and resilience plan. The reporters also point out that Orgenesis Inc. and its European subsidiaries are not registered in the transparency register of the European Union“, complain the MEPs.
The seven MEPs report potential conflicts of interest. “The husband of the President of the European Commission assumes a leading managerial role as medical director and general manager in a private company, involved in projects financed or co-financed by European programs, i.e. by public money. Questions by EU citizens and their representatives about potential conflicts (of interest) are legitimate“, they point out.
MEPs call on the Transparency Commissioner to investigate whether Mr Heiko Von der Leyen’s leadership positions are compatible with the institutional role of his wife, Ursula Von Der Leyen.lecourrier-du-soir. 17/12/22
“Dowry” from Maximus to Ursula’s husband
He plays with the fortunes of the citizens of Europe, who see before them one of the most difficult winters because of it energy crisis. A winter that can become extremely dangerous, especially for the middle and lower income classes. This is because it is impossible for him to make a firm decision.
- By Emmanuela Tsouderou
In early September, for example, the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen declared himself in favor of a maximum price for natural gas, telling reporters that the Commission would propose “a maximum value». Last week, however, the president of the Commission decided not to suggest cap on the wholesale price of natural gas, accepting, according to a Politico report, Berlin’s view that, if the cap is imposed, natural gas should be redistributed politically among EU countries, rather than distributed by market forces.
Mr. Layen
Of course, Ursula von der Leyen’s “household” will have absolutely no problem with rising energy costs. His professional activity wife she seems to be doing extremely well, since, among other things, recently was funded and with warm, Greek money, with many zeros, from the State Funds.
And in the last few days, a coldness can be seen in the president’s relations with the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakissince both times it was announced that they would have dinner together (one in Athens and one in Bulgaria) the meeting broke down, but the Greek government some time ago strengthened the Von der Leyen family budget.
As “Democracy” had mentioned in a previous report, the husband of the head of the Commission, Mr Haiku fon der Laien, participates in the consortium of companies Theracell Laboratories IKE. This consortium is going to carry out an investment project in our country, amounting to 83,000,000 euros, entitled “Personalized cell & gene therapies (POCare Model)”.
However, this investment will also be made with financial aid from the Greek state, which can even reach the 32,000,000 euros, which will – as it seems – come from both state and European funds. In fact, in the time since last March, when the relevant report was published in “democracy”, until today it has now been published on its website Enterprise Greece S.A., which is the competent body, the Official Gazette describing the aid that the investment will receive, which was included in Law 4608/2019, on strategic investments. Enterprise Greece, in fact, which is now supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, approved within a short period of time the specific strategic investment, by decision of the Interministerial Committee, which was issued in November 2021, and which is chaired by the Minister of Development Adonis Georgiades.
The Theracell Laboratories IKE joint venture, founded in 2019, is 50% owned by Orgenesis Inc. and by 50% the Greek Theracell Advanced Technologies S.A. At Orgenesis Inc. maintains the position of medical director o husband of the president of the European Commission since December 2020, while earlier he was a member of the company’s scientific board. And it is certain that the company in which he operates is strengthened in… intra-EU businesses from the fact that his wife is at the helm of the European Commission.
Laboratories
The project on Greek soil, which has been announced with government fanfare and will be funded by both the Greek and European taxpayers, includes the construction of a production plant and research laboratories in Corinth. According to an announcement by the Ministry of Development, “the investment concerns the development of advanced autologous therapies and includes industrial research, installation of a coordinating production unit in the Corinth area, seven additional units, i.e. two in Athens and one each in Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Ioannina, Larissa and Alexandroupolis, as well as experimental development and production of new treatments».
In fact, this consortium had issued a press release to the Bloomberg agency, as early as November 2021, to announce the Greek financing, which obviously adds to the value of the company. In this he was thanking of course for the tens of millions of euros the Greek government. He even mentioned that the funding from the Greek government will be 32,000,000 euros, something that was not widely known until March 2022, when our report was published, since at that time the gazette had not been published on the official website of Enterprise Greece.
The government officials, on the other hand, who were advertising the investment, had neglect to inform about the amount of government funding, as the company did through the Bloomberg agency.
The son
It is not, of course, the first time that the von der Leyen family has used the position of head of the European Commission to gain benefits. At the end of it 2017when Ursula von der Leyen was Germany’s defense minister, it was revealed that she gave tens of millions unnecessarily in consulting companies, without, in fact, these costs ever being made public.
Among these companies was the American McKinsey, in which, however, one of her sons, the David von der Leyen. Apparently the fact that his mother financed the company helped David to become permanent, since he had initially only been accepted as a partner for the summer season.
What the Official Gazette reports – “Crazy” money for research and development projects
From Government Gazette it follows that the investment plan of Theracell Laboratories IKE was included in the strategic investments of case b of paragraph 2 of article 10 of law 4608/2019 and will enjoy the incentives of articles 12 and 14 of the same law. This means, in simple words, that he is entitled to aid that will actually touch the 32,000,000 euros.
Specifically:
In accordance with article 14 entitled toaid for research and development projects […] if the project concerns industrial research, experimental development or feasibility studies. The granted aid of this category, added together with any other state aid received by the investment body, cannot exceed twenty million (20,000,000) for projects mainly related to industrial research. […] per investment plan».
In accordance with article 12 entitled totax exemption and acceleration of tax depreciations, as long as it has received the approval of the Interministerial Committee».
Here is the letter from the 7 MEPs:
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