"Pfizergate": The missing text messages from the EU Commission President

The New York Times has won its case before the EU court in Luxembourg in the dispute over the disclosure of text messages from EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In the end, however, this did not help the newspaper or the public: the Commission had to decide again on the Times' request for disclosure of the text message exchange between von der Leyen and Albert Bourla, the head of the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, regarding deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines worth billions. However, the Brussels government institution continues to stonewall and claims that key short messages have long since been deleted.

In a letter dated July 28, the Commission stated that the controversial text messages could no longer be transmitted, reports the New York Times. After journalist Alexander Fanta first requested access to the text messages in May 2021, von der Leyen's head of cabinet Björn Seibert nevertheless decided not to save the text messages from the Commission President's cell phone. Seibert had read the messages in summer 2021 and had come to the conclusion that they were only used to arrange appointments for telephone calls during the coronavirus pandemic.

For this reason, the messages were not archived in a form that would have allowed them to be viewed by the public at a later date. According to the information, the messages have since been deleted and cannot be restored, as von der Leyen's smartphone was replaced several times and the data was not transferred. The content is said to have been deleted from the older devices in advance, and the phones then recycled. The text messages had therefore no longer been available since July 2023 at the latest.

No “important” information

Even at this stage, the Commission backed up its claim that it could not grant access to the text message exchange based on European freedom of information rules. According to the regulation on access to documents for EU bodies, there is only an obligation to retain documents “if they contain important information that is not of a short-term nature,” it argued at the time. This also applies as soon as action is required “on the part of the Commission or one of its departments”. The text messages in question did not meet these criteria.

The court dispute concerns a deal between the Commission and vaccine manufacturer Biontech/Pfizer from spring 2021. The parties agreed on the supply of up to 1.8 billion doses of coronavirus vaccine, with the contract volume estimated at 35 billion euros at the time. As reported by the New York Times, personal contact between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Bourla was crucial to the deal. They are also said to have communicated by text message.

(mma)