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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
A Belgian court has overturned an order to seize funds from Poland’s air-traffic control agency, PANSA, as part of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s efforts to enforce a €1.3 billion claim for COVID-19 vaccines Poland ordered but later refused to receive and pay for.
The ruling, issued on Thursday, followed a legal challenge by PANSA to the freezing of its funds. It argued that it was not a party to the dispute between Pfizer and the Polish state.
❗️Dziś Francuskojęzyczny Sąd Pierwszej Instancji w Brukseli wydał korzystny dla strony polskiej wyrok w sprawie zajęcia opłat trasowych należnych @PANSA_PL , pobieranych za pośrednictwem EUROCONTROL.
Sąd uznał zajęcie za bezzasadne i uchylił postanowienie, na podstawie którego… pic.twitter.com/EHvHZnL6ab
— Ministerstwo Zdrowia (@MZ_GOV_PL) November 12, 2026
In July this year, PANSA announced that it had been cut off from the fees paid to it by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol), which manages air traffic in Europe. Around 80% of PANSA’s revenue comes from those fees.
Eurocontrol is based in Belgium, which is where Pfizer has been fighting its legal battle against Poland over the unpaid vaccines. The move to freeze PANSA’s funds was part of Pfizer’s efforts to claim money it had been awarded from Poland by a Belgian court in April this year.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged government support to ensure PANSA had sufficient funds to maintain its operations and assured that air safety would not be compromised.
Poland’s air-traffic control agency has been cut off from most of its revenue as part of efforts by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to enforce a Belgian court ruling requiring Poland to pay €1.3bn for Covid vaccines it ordered but then refused to receive https://t.co/Nd9IyLqmmf
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 11, 2026
On Thursday this week, PANSA announced that its legal challenge to the seizure of its assets by bailiffs had been successful, though it noted that the ruling can still be appealed.
Poland’s health ministry, which has been involved in overseeing the legal battle with Pfizer, said that the Belgian court had confirmed that PANSA’s funds belong to the agency itself, not to the State treasury.
“The agency is a separate legal entity; it possesses its own assets and manages its own finances independently. It is not liable for the obligations of the State treasury; therefore, its funds cannot be used to satisfy Pfizer’s claims against Poland,” wrote the ministry.
In comments to Polish Radio, PANSA chief Magdalena Jaworska-Maćkowiak said the agency had become a hostage in a case “that did not, in fact, concern us”.
“It stemmed from an entirely separate dispute,” she noted. “This created extreme difficulties, as we were relying on a ‘bridge’ financing arrangement that, under current law, could not provide us with long-term stability.”
Pfizer, meanwhile, said Thursday’s court decision affected only one avenue of its efforts to enforce payment of the April ruling. “We are taking appropriate steps through established legal and contractual mechanisms to ensure compliance with the court’s [April] decision,” it added, quoted by Reuters.
Sąd w Brukseli uznał sprzeciw PAŻP wobec zajęcia komorniczego dokonanego na wniosek Pfizer za zasadny i uchylił postanowienie z 25 czerwca 2026 r., stanowiące podstawę zajęcia komorniczego. Rozstrzygnięcie jest zatem korzystne dla PAŻP, ale wyrok nie jest jeszcze prawomocny.
— PANSA (@PANSA_PL) November 12, 2026
The dispute stems from Poland’s refusal in 2022 to accept and pay for COVID-19 vaccine doses ordered from Pfizer under European Union procurement agreements.
In April 2022, the then health minister, Adam Niedzielski, invoked a force majeure clause following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
Poland, which by then had already sold or donated some of its surplus vaccines, argued the mass influx of Ukrainian refugees strained its public finances, while its cases of Covid infections had dropped.
Romania later made a similar decision to not comply with the contract. In 2023, Pfizer sued both countries in Belgium, the country where the contracts were signed. Over the course of the case, Poland also argued that Pfizer had potentially abused its market position.
A Belgian court has ordered Poland to pay US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer around €1.3 billion for Covid vaccines ordered by the European Commission on behalf of member states during the pandemic but which the Polish government later refused to receive https://t.co/1ZtPgl8Y3o
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 2, 2026
But in April, a Belgian court rejected those arguments and ruled in Pfizer’s favour, ordering Poland to accept approximately 64 million vaccine doses and pay more than 5.6 billion zloty, plus interest and legal costs.
Poland appealed against the judgment in August 2026. The health ministry said on Thursday it would not disclose details of its legal arguments or planned procedural steps while the proceedings remain ongoing.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Mohammed Mzabi / Pexels
Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.
