Today, the EU Court ruled in favor of The New York Times in an appeal against the European Commission's decision not to grant NYT-journalist Stevi access to text messages exchanged between President Von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer; the contested decision was annulled. The text messages were exchanged during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the Commission and Pfizer were negotiating a vaccine deal (2021/2022). The vaccine deal is one of the largest procurement contracts ever entered into by the European Union, but the Commission was widely criticized for its lack of transparency regarding the negotiations. It is for that reason that The New York Times also delved into the matter.
From a legal perspective, this appeal concerned the question of whether the text messages should be considered ‘documents’ within the meaning of the Access to Documents Regulation. The purpose of that regulation is (precisely) "to give the fullest possible effect to the right of public access to documents held by the institutions". In the opinion of the EU Court, the text messages fall within the ambit of the regulation, and the Commission had not "succeeded in rebutting the presumption of non-existence and of non-possession of the requested documents". Contrary to the journalist and The New York Times, the Commission had based its position in the appeal “either on assumptions or on changing or imprecise information”. A credible explanation for its position that the text messages could not be produced was not given, and the Commission was also unable to demonstrate why, in its view, the text messages did not contain important information that should therefore have been retained.
Transparent government action is indispensable in a democratic society, and journalists are an important control mechanism in that respect. Access to information about the actions of government institutions, also on EU-level, is crucial for this. Today's ruling underlines these interests once again, and sets a precedent regarding the need for government officials to also archive their chat messages (from now on).
Stevi and The New York Times were represented in this case by lawyer Bondine Kloostra.
The Commission can still appeal today's ruling.
Annexes
- Press Release, EU Court, 14 May 2025
- J. Smialek, ‘Court Sides With New York Times in Case Over Access to E.U. Text Messages’, 14 mei 2025 (The New York Times)
- (In Dutch) A. Boone, 'EU-hof doet uitspraak in Pfizergate: werkwijze en reputatie EU en Von der Leyen op het spel', 13 May 2025 (NRC)
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