Categories
Oversight

European Ombudsman: failure to search for requested text messages Von der Leyen constitutes maladministration

European Commission says it will study the decision and respond within the deadline set by the European Ombudsman.

Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer responds to questions after the European Ombudsman’s publication of her decision on Von der Leyen’s undisclosed text messages with Pfizer’s CEO, earlier that day. (Source: Commission, still from midday press briefing 28.1.22)
Categories
Implementation

Controversy over Von der Leyen’s secret text exchanges with Pfizer CEO

Text messages that apparently sealed a deal between Commission and Pfizer early 2021 are slowly becoming the centre of broader transparency questions.

Photo credit: Politico/Getty images
Categories
Legal reform Oversight

European Ombudsman conference: Technological change, legal reform?

Part II: The expert panel sees problems aplenty with Regulation 1049/2001 – but not everyone is keen to trade it for something else.

Conference signals start of a broader call to reopen revision of EU access to documents law. Second part of two reports on where the EU stands with access to documents.

Credit: @GundiGadesmann / European Ombudsman
Categories
Research

Can the EU’s policies against fake news restore trust in journalism?

When reading the EU’s policy papers to tackle fake news, one might get the impression that digitalization and fake news are the main culprits of the current challenges to journalism. Keeping the EU’s market-oriented regulations for the media sector in mind, however, Asimina Michailidou, Elisabeth Eike and Hans-Jörg Trenz argue that the understanding of media as regular businesses instead of important democratic institutions is the main problem.