Signal Messenger: Von der Leyen deletes automatically to save storage space

The EU Commission's handling of transparency requirements continues to cause anger. The EU Commission has defended the use of self-deleting messages on the encrypted messenger service Signal on the mobile phone of President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU). The messages are “automatically deleted after a while, simply for memory reasons,” explained a Commission spokesperson on Wednesday. He added with a wink: “Otherwise the mobile phone would go up in flames.” But critics are in no mood for jokes in light of the activation of the auto-delete function, which in this case erased some of the EU's most politically sensitive conversations.

Reporters had previously asked about a missing text message from French President Emmanuel Macron. In the message, he had urged von der Leyen to block the EU-Mercosur trade agreement with South America. The European Ombudsman Teresa Anjinho has just launched an investigation into this incident. The inspector is not satisfied with the official statement. The Commission has not kept the relevant message as it had “no particular administrative or legal effect”.

According to the Brussels-based government institution, von der Leyen was merely following internal rules with the default setting. The use of the “disappearing messages” function is recommended in a Commission guide from 2022 entitled “Checklist for improving signal security”.

Pfizergate sends its regards

“On the one hand, it reduces the risk of leaks and security breaches, which is of course an important factor,” a Commission spokesperson said, according to Politico. “And it's also a question of storage space on the mobile phone—in other words, the effective use of a mobile device.” However, text messages may have to be retained under certain circumstances. This applies, for example, “if tracking is necessary because there are administrative or legal implications”.

In the case of Macron's communication, von der Leyen's head of cabinet, Björn Seiber, did not believe this threshold was met. “He was one of the actors who took part in this discussion,” the executive authority said. The president evaluated the message together with him and the relevant departments.

This is not the first time that von der Leyen's communication habits have raised eyebrows. Her text message exchange with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla about Covid vaccine contracts was also never archived, which has also triggered an ongoing investigation by the Ombudsman (“Pfizergate”). The reason given by the Commission for the manual deletion in this case is that the text messages were only used to arrange appointments for telephone calls during the coronavirus pandemic. They would therefore not have been of interest to posterity.

Are backroom deals on the rise?

“By definition, messages that disappear after being sent are not transparent,” Shari Hinds, Political Integrity Officer for the EU at Transparency International, complains to Politico Playbook. “How can you check whether a message is sensitive or not if you can't see it?”

The affair continues to provide fuel for fire in other ways too: Von der Leyen is dependent on a coalition of pro-European center parties in the face of new votes of no confidence. Liberal MEP Raquel García Hermida-van der Walle has therefore now advised the President to allow more external scrutiny. The deputy leader of the Socialist Group in the EU Parliament, Alex Agius Saliba, also admonished von der Leyen: she must “set a good example and not give the impression that backroom deals are the order of the day.” The repeated cases of a lack of transparency not only undermined the trust of elected representatives in the Commission leadership but also that of EU citizens.

(vbr)