European Union President Called Out Over Private Conversations With Pfizer Boss

European oversight officials are calling out European Union (UN) leadership about a deal that was made between the EU President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer boss Albert Bourla last year – but conveniently, text messages between the two have disappeared, according to a statement that was issued on the matter on Wednesday.

The EU president denies any prior charges of “maladministration” after it was revealed in an April 2021 interview that von der Leyen and Bourla had communicated privately for several weeks, while they were in the midst of cutting a deal for 2 billion vaccine doses.

The statement released by the European Commission said it was unable to locate the text messages between von der Leyen and Bourla and an expanded search did “not yielded any results and then went on to argue that due to the “short-lived and ephemeral nature” of text messages, they “do not contain important information” so as a result are not stored.

The response came after a journalist had requested the texts, and the commission claimed it could not locate them.

That is where European ombudsman Emily O’Reilly made a statement about the commission not being able to locate the text messages in question and suggested they “search again” by broadening the criteria to locate the records.

O’Reilly had investigated the matter last year and called out the EU officials over their lack of transparency and subpar administration.

The commission doubled down and insisted that the matter had been handled appropriately and that they had done everything to locate the text messages – reiterating that text material that contains “no important information, are not kept, and, as a consequence, are not in the possession of the institution.”

“The European Commission is of the opinion that it has not treated this request in a ‘narrow way’ and that the search and handling of documents for the purpose of public requests for access to documents… is justified and follows the established practice,” the statement said.

The commission added that it planned to “issue further guidance on modern communication tools” in hopes of avoiding similar mix-ups in the future, but nonetheless held that its actions were “in line with the applicable legislation and the relevant case law on access to documents.”

It was noted by the ombudsman, however, that the commission’s response was “problematic on several points,” and that a “full analysis” would be coming in the next few weeks.

Several MEPs sued the commission in April, after claiming that negotiations around vaccine deals were far too secretive, and the contracts that were published were so heavily redacted that it “made it impossible to understand the content of the agreements,” saying that secrecy “has no place in public agreements with pharmaceutical companies.