A court in Brussels has set aside an order that seized fees belonging to the agency that runs Poland's air traffic control, handing Warsaw a significant win in its long-running dispute with Pfizer over Covid-19 vaccine payments.

The Polish Air Navigation Services Agency, known as PANSA, said on Thursday that a Brussels court of first instance had found its objection to the seizure "well-founded" and set aside a court order dated 25 June. The seizure had deprived the agency of fees equivalent to more than 80 percent of its income.

The order was made in connection with a Belgian court ruling in an ongoing dispute in which Pfizer is suing Poland for payment for Covid-19 vaccines. The pharmaceutical company is seeking €1.3 billion, around $1.4 billion, from Warsaw.

What the Brussels court decided

According to PANSA, the Brussels court accepted that the money at issue came from en-route charges paid by airlines for using Polish airspace, and that those funds belonged to the agency rather than to the Polish state.

Poland's Health Ministry issued a statement along the same lines, saying the court had confirmed that the funds from en-route charges belonged to PANSA and not to the Polish treasury. "It is not liable for the obligations of the state treasury; therefore, its funds cannot be used to satisfy Pfizer's claims against Poland," the ministry said.

Pfizer, for its part, pointed to a court ruling in April which it said confirmed "the importance of the contractual obligations that underpinned Europe's successful pandemic response". The company said Thursday's decision related only to one avenue of enforcement of that judgment, and that it was taking appropriate steps through established legal and contractual mechanisms to ensure compliance with the court's decision.

Why air traffic fees were targeted

The seizure illustrates how far the vaccine payments dispute has travelled beyond the health ministry. Because the claim is against the Polish state, Pfizer has sought to enforce it against Polish assets held in Belgium, and air navigation charges collected through the European system proved to be a tempting target.

For PANSA, however, the stakes were operational as well as legal. Losing more than four-fifths of its income would have put the running of Poland's air traffic control under severe strain, raising questions about how safely one of Europe's busiest airspaces could be managed while the dispute dragged on.

The agency's objection rested on a simple argument: the fees are collected to fund air navigation services, not to fill the treasury's coffers, and they should not be treated as state money available to creditors of the Polish government.

What happens next

PANSA was careful to note that the decision is favourable to it but that the judgment is not final, leaving room for further legal steps. The underlying dispute over the €1.3 billion vaccine bill remains unresolved, and Pfizer has made clear it intends to keep pursuing payment.

The ruling will nevertheless be watched closely by other European governments and agencies. It draws a line between money held by a state body for a specific public service and money belonging to the state itself, a distinction that matters whenever a creditor tries to seize assets abroad.

For now, Poland's air traffic controllers can plan on the basis that their funding is secure. The wider argument over who should pay for vaccines ordered during the pandemic, and on what terms, is set to continue in the courts.