The European Ombudsman has sharply reprimanded the EU Commission of President Ursula von der Leyen for its non-transparent handling of SMS messages in connection with vaccine purchases worth billions. She spoke of a maladministration and called for clarification. Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly said on Friday in Brussels that the “expectations of the Commission’s transparency and administrative standards” had not been met.
The case is also piquant because the CDU politician’s handling of cell phone data has already been criticized. When she was Secretary of Defense, the data on one of her cell phones was erased. The Ministry of Defense justified the mobile phone deletion in 2019 with a “security incident”.
Capture “Relevant Text Messages”.
Critics complained that evidence was lost in the consultant affair, which involved allegations of incorrect procurement and nepotism. The current case is about a deal for up to 1.8 billion doses of corona vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer from spring 2021. The contract volume was estimated at 35 billion euros at the time.
As the “New York Times” reported, the personal contact between von der Leyen and Pfizer boss Albert Bourla was crucial for the business. The journalist Alexander Fanta from netzpolitik.org then asked the EU Commission about the EU’s Freedom of Information Act. However, she rejected the request.
According to the ombudsman, the EU Commission replied to the journalist that the text messages had not been registered. However, the authority did not specifically ask von der Leyen’s cabinet to search for SMS – only for documents that meet the registration criteria. SMS are not included. So it was not even tried to find out whether SMS existed, said O’Reilly. She stressed: “Not all text messages need to be registered, but they clearly fall under the EU transparency law. Therefore, relevant text messages should be recorded.”
The EU Commission should look for SMS again
For the right of access to EU documents, it is the content that matters, not the device or the form. “The EU administration needs to update its document registration practice.” The EU Commission must ask von der Leyen’s cabinet to look for the SMS again. If they turned up, it should be checked whether they meet the criteria to be released.
A spokesman for the EU Commission emphasized that the ombudsman would respond within the specified period. He declined to comment further on the process. Basically, he said that von der Leyen was in contact with heads of state and government, company bosses and representatives of civil society through various channels. Another spokesman said the agency was generally evaluating whether to adjust policy on access to documents due to changing means of communication.
(axk)