An investigation by an official EU watchdog into secret text messages sent by European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to Pfizer CEO, Albert Bourla, has found the EU’s executive arm guilty of “maladministration.”
My address to Ursula von der Leyen (President of the @EU_Commission) in the @Europarl_EN: "Your report on the human rights situation in the EU is fabricated and untrue, end insane divisions and discrimination against citizens." pic.twitter.com/oBjfxIOQD1
— Mislav Kolakusic MEP 🇭🇷🇪🇺 (@mislavkolakusic) January 23, 2022
Von der Leyen’s aides are heavily criticized in the ruling from Emily O’Reilly, the European ombudsman, for their handling of requests for publication of the messages during negotiations over COVID-19 vaccine purchases with Pfizer sent to CEO Albert Bourla, whose company is now forecasting revenues of $36 billion (£26bn) from COVID-19 vaccine sales this financial year.
Watchdog orders Ursula von der Leyen to reveal secret texts with Pfizer CEOhttps://t.co/Br1QrcaIlb
— James (@JamesfWells) January 28, 2022
O’Reilly said the commission’s behavior fell short of the levels of transparency required under EU law.
“The narrow way in which this public access request was treated meant that no attempt was made to identify if any text messages existed. This falls short of reasonable expectations of transparency and administrative standards in the commission,” O’Reilly said.
Ursula von der Leyen accused of ‘maladministration’ after refusing to publish text messages to Pfizer chief
— Tess Summers 🇬🇧🇮🇪 (@tesssummers98) January 28, 2022
Why refuse to release them if there's nothing to hide?https://t.co/B34s3kP45l
“Not all text messages need to be recorded, but text messages clearly do fall under the EU transparency law and so relevant text messages should be recorded. It is not credible to claim otherwise.”