Follow the Money journalist Alexander Fanta requested access to the message, but the Commission replied it could not identify the text as “the ‘disappearing messages’ feature of the instant-messaging mobile application ‘Signal’ was activated on the phone on which the message had been received,” according to the Ombudsman.
The Commission told the complainant that von der Leyen and her head of cabinet had decided there was no need to register the message and let it disappear.
It’s not the first time von der Leyen’s handling of text messages has come under scrutiny. In May, an EU court found that the European Commission had been wrong to refuse access to von der Leyen’s text messages with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. In that case, the European Commission also reviewed the texts in question and allowed them to be lost.
The Ombudsman has asked the Commission for a meeting by mid-October to discuss Macron’s text and wants the EU executive to share documents showing the “steps taken by the Commission in dealing with the access request” by Oct. 1.
The message from Macron, a long-time opponent of the EU-Mercosur trade deal, was sent in January 2024 when France was facing massive farmer protests. The trade deal was ultimately sealed in December last year.
POLITICO has reached out to the Commission and Macron’s office for comment.
This article has been updated.