Judgment of the General Court in case T-36/23

PRESS RELEASE No 60/25 Luxembourg, 14 May 2025 Judgment of the General Court in Case T-36/23 | Stevi and The New York Times v Commission Access to documents: the Commission decision refusing a journalist of The New York Times access to the text messages exchanged between President von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer is annulled By an application based on the Access to Documents Regulation, 1 Matina Stevi, a journalist working for the daily newspaper The New York Times, requested the European Commission to provide access to all text messages exchanged between President Ursula von der Leyen and Albert Bourla, the chief executive officer of Pfizer, between 1 January 2021 and 11 May 2022. The Commission rejected that application on the ground that it did not hold the documents covered by it. Ms Stevi and The New York Times requested the General Court of the European Union to annul the Commission’s decision. In its judgment, the General Court upholds the action and annuls the Commission’s decision. The Court recalls that the purpose of the Access to Documents Regulation is to give the fullest possible effect to the right of public access to documents held by the institutions. Thus, in principle, all documents of the institutions should be accessible to the public. However, where an institution states that a document does not exist in the context of an application for access, the non-existence of that document is presumed, in accordance with...