Seizure by a journalist, the European Ombudsman found that the public could be aware of the exchanges between the President of the European Commission and the director of the Pfizer laboratory.
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The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, must bite the fingers of entrusted to the New York Times, in April 2021, that it corresponded by SMS with Albert Bourla, the director general of Pfizer, then That the twenty-seven negotiated the purchase of Vaccines against CVIV-19 with the US laboratory. It is now that these exchanges, of which she herself revealed the existence at a time when she was trying to forget the calamity debut of the European vaccination strategy, causing him some worries.
The European Ombudsman, seized by a reporter of the Netzpolitik German site who had been denied access to the content of these messages, has indeed given wrong, Friday, January 28, to the Community Executive. For Emily O’Reilly, the texts “fall within the framework of the European legislation on public access to documents” and “the public may be accessible if they concern the work of the institution”. It considers that this is a “bad administration case”. And calls on the Ursula von der Leyen firm to consider the messages in question, by April 26, to see if they “meet the criteria, under EU legislation [European Union] on Access to documents, to be disclosed “.
” This is the content of the document that matters “
“We will respond to the mediator on time,” says Eric Mammer, Commission spokesman. But there is nothing obliging the community executive to run and follow the opinion of Emily O’Reilly. For the time being, the Commission considers that these messages do not have to be registered with the documents to which the public can claim to have access. “It’s as if we were asked to register all our work-related telephone conversations, it would have no sense,” comments on a close to Ursula von der Leyen. Before pursuing: “Imagine if Macron had to make available to the public all his SMS!”
“This is the content of the document that matters and not support or form. If the texts concern EU policies and decisions, they must be treated as EU documents”, Emily reputation O’Reilly, who calls on the Commission to review his practice. “This case is more important than a simple exchange of SMS”, comments on the Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld (Renew), which alerts: “The Commission has become less transparent, less responsible before the European Parliament and frankly more disconnected European democracy. “
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