EU executive defends its right not to keep records of president’s messages after rebuke from ombudsman
The commission later refused a freedom of information request from a journalist to provide the text messages, prompting an appeal to the ombudsman.
In a defiant response, the commission said it could not find the messages because such “short-lived, ephemeral documents are not kept” and were “not in the possession of the institution”. The commission repeated that it saw no need to keep text messages, claiming they contained no vital information. “Due to their short-lived and ephemeral nature, text and instant messages in general do not contain important information relating to policies, activities and decisions of the commission,” it said.
Kathleen Van Brempt, a Belgian Social Democrat MEP who chairs the European parliament’s special committee on Covid-19, described the commission’s response as unacceptable. “The complete lack of transparency benefits the industry, not European citizens,” she said.
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