A prime European court docket dominated on Wednesday (May 14, 2025) that the European Commission was flawed to refuse the New York Times entry to textual content messages despatched between President Ursula von der Leyen and a pharmaceutical boss in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, spurring additional requires reform from transparency advocates.
The U.S. newspaper’s attorneys “succeeded in rebutting the presumption of non-existence and of non-possession of the requested documents,” based on an announcement from the European Union’s General Court in Luxembourg.
The case highlights ongoing questions on oversight of the Commission, which insists that textual content messages and different “ephemeral” digital communications don’t essentially represent paperwork of curiosity that needs to be saved or made public.
An announcement from the court docket stated “the Commission cannot merely state that it does not hold the requested documents but must provide credible explanations enabling the public and the court to understand why those documents cannot be found.”
It stated that the Commission had failed to elucidate “in a plausible manner” why the messages didn’t comprise vital info.
It additionally stated that the Commission “has not sufficiently clarified whether the requested text messages were deleted and, if so, whether the deletion was done deliberately or automatically or whether the President’s mobile phone had been replaced in the meantime.”
“Today’s decision is a victory for transparency and accountability in the European Union, and it sends a powerful message that ephemeral communications are not beyond the reach of public scrutiny,” stated Nicole Taylor, a spokesperson for the New York Times.
The Commission stated it will research the ruling and determine “on next steps,” which might consult with an attraction earlier than the European Court of Justice, the EU’s prime court docket. “Transparency has always been of paramount importance for the Commission and President von der Leyen,” it stated in an announcement.
Transparency advocates argue that the EU’s more and more highly effective government department ought to preserve a paper path of all its dealings and launch paperwork when requested.
“This should serve as a catalyst for the Commission to finally change its restrictive attitude to freedom of information,” stated Shari Hinds, a coverage officer for Transparency International, an anti-corruption group.
The New York Times stated texts have been exchanged between President Von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla as COVID-19 ravaged communities from Portugal to Finland and the EU scrambled to purchase billions of vaccines.
President Von der Leyen was beneath intense scrutiny, particularly after AstraZeneca stumbled to ship vaccine doses to the 27-nation bloc.
Amid fierce worldwide competitors for entry to the vaccines, President Von der Leyen was praised for her main function in the course of the pandemic, however she additionally discovered herself receiving sharp criticism for the opacity of the negotiations to rapidly collect 2.7 billion euros ($2.95 billion) to position an order for greater than a billion doses of vaccines.
At the identical time, as she was reported to be exchanging messages instantly with the Pfizer boss was publicly praising the corporate as “ a reliable partner.”
The Commission has simply over two months to launch an attraction to the European Court of Justice ought to it determine to contest Wednesday’s (May 14, 2025) ruling.
“The Commission misplaced so fully (in this ruling) and on each attainable floor that overturning this in the ECJ appears extraordinarily unlikely,” said Païvi Leino-Sandberg, a law professor at the University of Helsinki who has a pending legal challenge before the same court about the Commission’s internal documentation rules. “This is a huge victory for transparency.”
Published – May 14, 2025 04:22 pm IST
