Ombudsman
In April last year, a story published by the New York Times revealed that
A journalist then asked the Commission for access to the text messages and other documents, but the executive branch did not provide any text, saying no record of such messages had been kept.
According to the ombudsman's inquiry, the Commission did not clearly ask
“This falls short of reasonable expectations of transparency and administrative standards in the Commission,” O’Reilly said. “When it comes to the right of public access to EU documents, it is the content of the document that matters and not the device or form."
O'Reilly urged the Commission “to update its document recording practices to reflect this reality."
Commission officials had argued that text messages are ephemeral and don't contain important information to justify their inclusion in a document management system. But they acknowledged the content of a text was more relevant than the medium itself, the ombudsman's services said.
The commission must send a response to the recommendation before
The coronavirus crisis has shed a light on the lack of transparency surrounding the negotiations for vaccines between the EU and big pharmaceutical groups.
In October last year, EU lawmakers voted a resolution calling for legislation to make purchasing and distributing COVID-19 vaccines more transparent.
“Access to EU documents is a fundamental right,” O’Reilly said. “While this is a complex issue for many reasons, EU administrative practices should evolve and grow with the times we live in and the modern methods we use to communicate.”
EU lawmaker Sophie in ’t Veld welcomed the ombudsman's recommendation and said the
“This is bigger than just text messaging between
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