BRUSSELS, July 17 (Reuters) - Europe's second-highest

court on Wednesday criticised the European Commission for a lack

of transparency over COVID-19 vaccine contracts four years ago,

a day before a key vote on Commission head Ursula von der

Leyen's bid for a second term.

Some European lawmakers have been highly critical of the

Commission's handling of the multibillion-euro contracts, and in

particular for not disclosing text messages between von der

Leyen and the boss of drugmaker Pfizer ( PFE ) about one of the

contracts. The Commission says she did not keep the messages.

The Commission signed deals with COVID vaccine supplies

AstraZeneca ( AZN ), Sanofi, GSK, Johnson &

Johnson ( JNJ ), BioNTech, Pfizer ( PFE ), Moderna ( MRNA )

and others at the height of the pandemic.

Some European Parliament lawmakers asked for access to the

documents to understand the terms and contracts. However, the

Commission provided only partial access and redacted some of the

documents, saying this was done to protect commercial interests

and the decision-making process.

The lawmakers took their grievances to the Luxembourg-based

General Court and judges on Wednesday upheld their challenge.

"The Commission did not give the public sufficiently wide

access to the purchase agreements for COVID-19 vaccines," they

said.

"The Commission did not demonstrate that wider access to

those clauses would actually undermine the commercial interests

of those undertakings," the court added. It also rejected the EU

executive's privacy arguments.

The Commission said it would study the court's judgments and

their implications and reserve its legal options. It can appeal

to the Court of Justice of the European Union, Europe's highest.

The Commission should now be more open about its

decision-making procedures after the judgment, said lawmaker Kim

van Sparrentak, who together with colleagues took the complaint

to the court.

"This ruling is significant for the future, as the

Commission is expected to undertake more joint procurements in

areas like health and defence," she said.

"The new Commission must now adapt their handling of access

to documents requests to be in line with today's ruling."

The European Parliament is due to vote on Thursday on von

der Leyen's bid for a second five-year term.

The European Ombudsman in 2022 accused the Commission of

maladministration for not disclosing von der Leyen's text

messages with Pfizer ( PFE ) chief Albert Bourla.

The New York Times has sued the Commission over its failure

to release the text messages.

The cases are T-689/21 Auken and Others v Commission and

T-761/21 Courtois and Others v Commission.