BERLIN, June 24. /TASS/. European Ombudsman Teresa Anjinho has launched an investigation into European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over a secret chat involving German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Vladimir Zelensky, the Berliner Zeitung newspaper reported.

Anjinho notified the European Commission of the investigation last week. She is examining whether the EC violated transparency rules by refusing to grant the Dutch organization Follow the Money (FTM) access to the correspondence. The European Commission justified its refusal by stating that publishing the chat data could "complicate the international relations of the European Union (and its member states) with third countries."

"I have decided to launch a probe into the European Commission's actions regarding the applicant's request in accordance with EU regulations concerning public access to documents," Anjinho wrote to the FTM organization. She expects to meet with EC representatives by mid-July.