The European Union’s top court has delivered a significant blow to the European Commission, ruling that it unlawfully withheld access to text messages exchanged between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) annulled the Commission’s refusal to grant The New York Times access to the communications, concluding that the EU executive failed to provide a convincing reason for claiming it does not possess the messages.
According to the ruling, the Commission cannot merely assert it lacks certain documents; it must offer a credible and verifiable explanation for their absence. The Court emphasized that such an explanation is necessary for both public accountability and judicial review.
The case stems from The New York Times’ 2021 investigation, which revealed the likely existence of text exchanges tied to negotiations for COVID-19 vaccine purchases. The Commission repeatedly denied access to the texts, prompting the newspaper to bring the case to the ECJ in January 2023.
“These contracts were totally unprecedented in a totally unprecedented context,” said an EU official ahead of the ruling.
The Court found that The New York Times had presented consistent evidence supporting the claim that text messages between von der Leyen and Bourla existed during the vaccine procurement period. Yet, the Commission did not sufficiently clarify whether the messages were deleted—either intentionally or through an automatic process.
The Commission now has two months to decide whether to appeal the judgment.
