Text Messages, Transparency, and the Rule of Law
On 14 May 2025, the General Court of the EU ruled in favour of The New York Times in the much-awaited Pfizergate case, annulling the European Commission's decision to withhold the SMS text messages presumed to have been exchanged between EU Commission President von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. While presented as another case concerning document access, potentially illuminating the informal negotiation process behind COVID-19 vaccine contracts and the management and archive of texts and other instant messages, this judgment largely defies this expectation.
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Nur vom Volk abhängig?
Das Schweizer Parlament wehrt sich nach wie vor gegen weitergehende Transparenzvorschriften, die seine eigene Tätigkeit betreffen. Dieses Mal geht es um die Nebeneinkünfte der Parlamentsmitglieder. Wie auch im Zusammenhang mit anderen verwandten Geschäften – man denke etwa an die Transparenzinitiative – beharrt der Ständerat auf den Besonderheiten des Milizparlaments sowie auf dem Schutz der Privatsphäre. Wie der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt, entfernt sich das Parlament mit dieser Argumentation immer mehr von den Wählerinteressen – und damit von seinem verfassungsrechtlichen Auftrag, wonach es nur vom Volk abhängig sein darf.
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Unboxing the EU Body for Ethical Standards
The creation of a dedicated EU Body for Ethical Standards carries the potential to mark a qualitative difference in the development of the EU ethics system as we know it. The contributions shows the strengths and looming pitfalls of the new Body.
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“This Is Not a Foreign Agents Law”
On Tuesday, 12 December 2023, the Commission adopted its long-awaited Defence of Democracy package, which includes a Proposal for a Directive on Transparency of Interest Representation on behalf of Third Countries. Dubravka Šuica, Commissioner for Democracy and Demography seemed eager to clarify what the Directive is not. Šuica emphasised that the Directive “is not a foreign agents law”. But the more a statement is repeated, the less credible it appears. Rather, the opposite appears to be true. And so, the devil is not in the name, it lies in enforcement. Despite the Commission’s assertion that full harmonisation of the Directive prevents Member States from gold-plating or potentially worse activities, the Commission has limited control over how Member States apply and enforce their national laws. This is the biggest risk of the proposal.
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