For the first time, the European Commission did not grant access to messages.

The European Commission has not found the SMS sent between Ursula von der Leyen and the head of Pfizer, writes euronewsreferring to a letter from the Executive Ombudsman of the European Union to the Ombudsman.

Von der Leyen and Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, texted each other last month before reaching an agreement to provide 1.8 billion doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

The European Commission did not allow access to the messages for the first time, so the EU’s ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, opened an investigation, finding that commission staff had never specifically asked the presidency to look up the text messages.

The EU executive then called for more in-depth research. The committee now claims that it cannot find such messages, but it has previously argued that

Communication by SMS is not subject to EU transparency rules on access to documents.

Vera Jourova, the European Commissioner for Transparency, confirmed in a letter to the Ombudsman that the search was unsuccessful. The Office of the Ombudsman described the committee’s response as problematic.

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