CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2019 – Source: EP
The case promises to spark a lot of ink and turn heads. The EU Ombudswoman Tereja Anjinho launched a formal inquiry into the private “Washington Group” — where von der Leyen coordinated with Keir Starmer, Emannuel Macron, Giorgia Meloni and Frederick Merz to counter Donald Trump’s influence.
The case is recent. Investigative journalism platform Follow the Money (FTM) requested the logs of that secret group chat. The European Commission denied access to the chat records. It claimed that releasing the messages “would undermine the international relations of the EU (and its Member States) vis-à-vis third countries”.
Ombudswoman Teresa Anjinho is now investigating the refusal and has demanded a meeting by July 20, 2026. Anjinho is determining if the EU executive committed administrative errors by withholding this information. Anjinho has requested a formal inspection of the files.
The political implications of the case promise not to be limited to issues of administrative malfunction. The Trump administration's hostile stance towards the European Commission has already begun and could extend to levels that the group members could not have imagined when they started the chat six months ago.
The group chat was reportedly used to strategize and counter the political influence of Donald Trump. The private communications do not only involve Commission President Ursula von der Leyen coordinating with high-profile leaders: Starmer (UK), Macron (France), Meloni (Italy), Merz (Germany). The group also intended to involve Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Ukraine), well aware that they were abusing his political inexperience and that they could seriously harm him in the future.
