Von der Leyen in trouble. Court ruled that she had to show messages with the head of Pfizer

The General Court of the European Union ruled on Wednesday that the European Commission did not give a convincing explanation to justify the non -text messaging between the Ursula Von der Leyen Commission President and the PFIZer Pharmaceutical CEO on the purchase of a covid vaccine.

The General Court ruled in a case initiated by the New York Times and then Brussels correspondent of that newspaper Matin Stevi. She asked the Commission to approach the approach to the approach to the Commission to allow her to inspect the messages between von der Leyen and the Chief Director of Pfizer Albert Bourle in the period from January 1, 2021 to May 11, 2022.

The Commission rejected the request with the explanation not to own the documents to which this request relates, after which Matina Stevi and The New York Times asked the European Union General Court to cancel the Commission’s decision.

The General Court accepted the lawsuit in its judgment and canceled the Commission’s decision. The Commission may complain to the court within two months and ten days that should be limited to legal issues.

The court statement is said to have the purpose of the Decree on the approach to the documents the greatest importance of the right of public approach to documents in the possession of the institutions. Therefore, in principle, all documents of institutions should be available to the public.

However, when the institution in response to the approach claims claims that the document does not exist, it is assumed that this document does not exist, in accordance with the assumption of the truth that applies to that statement. This assumption, however, can be broken on the basis of relevant and harmonized indications submitted by the applicant for access.

« In this case, the general court notes that the Commission’s answers in terms of requested text messages throughout the procedure were based on either assumptions or on changing or imprecise information. On the other hand, Matina Stevi and The New York Times have submitted relevant and consistent elements that show that in the Commission’s purchase of vaccines from the Pfeser Company in Pifer The President of the Commission and the CEO of the Society has been conducted by communication, especially through text messages.

In such a situation, however, the Commission cannot only claim that it does not own the documents requested, but must provide convincing explanations that allow the public and the general court to understand why these documents cannot be found, the statement added.

The Commission did not specify the types of searches she conducted to find these documents or what she searched. Therefore, she did not provide a convincing explanation in order to justify the non -compliance with the requested documents. In addition, the Commission did not explain enough whether the messages were deleted and, if so, were deleted voluntarily or automatically and whether the presidential mobile phone had been replaced in the meantime.

Finally, the Commission did not convincingly explain why she felt that text messages were exchanged regarding the purchase of a covid-19 disease vaccine does not contain important information, that is, information that requires further treatment whose guarding must be provided, the statement said.