The European Commission wrongly dismissed a journalist’s request to access texts between the president and the Pfizer CEO, the court said.
An EU court has ruled that the European Commission violated transparency rules by failing to grant access to text messages between Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of pharma giant Pfizer.
In a long-awaited judgement in the so-called 'Pfizergate' scandal, the General Court of the EU in Luxembourg decided that the Commission "has not given a plausible explanation to justify" its dismissal of a journalist's request to access the texts.
The case stems from a 2023 complaint filed by The New York Times after the Commission refused to release text messages exchanged between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in 2021, while the Covid-19 pandemic raged across Europe.
The row over the messages – reportedly linked to negotiations over a €35 billion vaccine deal – has prompted accusations of secrecy and institutional opacity at the highest levels of the EU executive.
The ruling, which is likely to attract significant political reaction, reinforces growing concerns around von der Leyen’s highly centralised leadership style.
A spokeperson for The New York Times said the 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."
"The court recognized the European Commission's mishandling of this request and made clear that officials have an obligation to retain and produce relevant records, including text messages," the spokeperson continued.
"Credible explanations" found wanting
In a press statement, the court said that The New York Times had "succeeded in rebutting the presumption" that the texts themselves were neither archived nor kept, which the Commission had put forward to partially justify their refusal to hand over the texts.The EU's regulation on access to documents, at the centre of the legal case, requires the Commission to offer "credible explanations enabling the public and the Court to understand why those documents cannot be found," the court continued.
The Commission also failed to plausibly prove that the texts "did not contain important information" – such as that pertaining to negotiations over lucrative vaccine contracts. If they did contain "important information", the Commission would be obliged to keep the texts, register them as documents, and then hand them over on request.
The Commission, in a statement acknowleding the judgement, said that it "should have provided a more detailed explanation in its decision that it does not hold documents of the requested type."
"Transparency has always been of paramount importance for the Commission and President von der Leyen," it continued. "We will continue to strictly abide by the solid legal framework in place to enforce our obligations."
The European Commission may appeal to the EU's top court, the Court of Justice.
This developing story has been updated.
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