PARIS — The European Ombudsman has launched a probe into a text message sent by French President Emmanuel Macron to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last year asking that she block the EU-Mercosur trade deal, which was revealed by POLITICO.
“European Ombudswoman Teresa Anjinho decided to open an inquiry into how the European Commission handled an access to documents request for a text message its President received from the French President regarding trade negotiations with Mercosur countries,” the Ombudsman’s office wrote in a statement published on Tuesday.
In January 2024, POLITICO reported that Macron had privately texted von der Leyen in an attempt to derail a trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur group of Latin American countries, which was strongly opposed by the French government.
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.
The post EU watchdog probes Macron’s text to von der Leyen requesting Mercosur delay appeared first on Politico.
