European Parliament Member Moritz Körner of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) claims that the European Commission has violated his parliamentary rights by failing to provide clear answers to his questions.
According to a report by the German news magazine Der Spiegel, Körner had requested the Commission to disclose the dates of all meetings between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Instead of providing a direct answer, the Commission referred to von der Leyen’s public calendar, which only listed two appointments.
Furthermore, the Commission cited a self-imposed decision, stating that “no publication regulations apply” to “meetings with representatives of political parties, as well as purely private or social gatherings.” Körner accused von der Leyen of attempting to circumvent publication obligations with “administrative tactics” and said that her “self-invented transparency rules undermine the democratic control rights of the European Parliament.” Von der Leyen has faced repeated criticism for a lack of transparency in the past.