The EU executive examined text messages exchanged between the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer during the height of the pandemic but ultimately allowed these messages to be lost.

A document from the Commission, shared recently with The New York Times, reveals that von der Leyen’s chief of staff in mid-2021 found the messages sent ahead of a multibillion-euro vaccine agreement between Pfizer and the EU. The document explains that because the messages were logistical and “short-lived,” they were not considered important enough to be formally archived.

Since then, von der Leyen’s mobile phone has been replaced multiple times, and the data was not transferred to new devices. In May, a lower EU court ruled that the executive branch was wrong not to release these texts. The Commission has now decided not to appeal this ruling in a higher court.

The case sparked debate among transparency advocates, who saw it as evidence of a lack of accountability within the Commission, as well as among critics of the vaccine. In early July, von der Leyen survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament triggered by a Romanian MEP over this issue.