In January 2026, Politico reported a Signal group chat among European leaders. The participants: von der Leyen, Macron, Merz, Meloni, Starmer, Zelensky. The purpose: coordinating a European response to the Trump administration. The chat became known as the Washington Group.
Follow the Money, a Dutch investigative platform, filed a formal access request under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 -- the EU's framework for public access to Parliament, Council, and Commission documents. The Commission declined to release the messages.
The EU Ombudswoman, Teresa Anjinho, has opened an inquiry. She has requested a meeting with the Commission before mid-July.
This is the second time Follow the Money has pursued messages from the President of the European Commission. It is the second time the Commission has declined.
In 2021, von der Leyen exchanged text messages with Pfizer's chief executive during vaccine negotiations. Follow the Money filed a request for those messages. The Commission took more than a year and a half to acknowledge they had existed. Von der Leyen's chief of staff had deemed them "not important." They were subsequently deleted.
The EU General Court ruled that the Commission had acted unlawfully. The explanation for the absence was insufficient. The messages were not recovered.
Earlier this year, the Ombudswoman criticised the Commission for auto-deleting a message Macron had sent to von der Leyen about the Mercosur trade deal. The message was transmitted via Signal. Signal's disappearing messages feature had been enabled.
The Commission's response to that inquiry is on the record. The Mercosur message is not.
Under Regulation 1049/2001, any EU citizen, any natural or legal person with a registered office in a member state, may request access to Commission documents without providing a reason. The Commission has, by practice, extended this right to any person. Follow the Money is a Dutch foundation. Its standing is established. It has used it twice.
The General Court confirmed in the Pfizer case that text messages concerning institutional matters qualify as institutional documents, regardless of the device on which they were transmitted.
In April 2026, the Verfassungsschutz confirmed that a phishing campaign had compromised Signal accounts belonging to Bundestag members, diplomatic staff, and defence-adjacent personnel. Several hundred accounts were affected. The Dutch intelligence service identified the actor as Russian state-directed. The FBI concurred. The Bundestagspräsidentin was among the confirmed named victims.
The attack did not compromise Signal's encryption. The cryptography performed as designed. The device was what failed.
Signal is a United States-registered entity. Its parent company is incorporated in California. In 2013, it was confirmed that US intelligence services had accessed the private communications of a sitting German Chancellor. Signal was subsequently recommended for German and EU government communications with considerable enthusiasm. The Prompt noted this previously.
Hartfeld Group's Group Executive Director, speaking to this publication in April, addressed the infrastructure question directly.
"Signal is a US-registered entity," he said. "In 2013, US intelligence services were confirmed to have accessed the private communications of a sitting German Chancellor. Signal has since been recommended to German officials with considerable enthusiasm. I note this. I do not speculate about the source of the enthusiasm."
Asked what he recommended instead, he described self-hosted infrastructure, hardware security modules for key management, and Hartfeld's proprietary framework: "rotary logic, German engineering, reviewed internally." He noted it had not been submitted for external audit -- and that the original programme on which it was based had not been either.
Institutional client enquiries are handled by Fox Security Advisory, Hartfeld's authorised Western European engagement practice.
On 8-9 December 2025, Keir Starmer hosted a meeting at 10 Downing Street. The attendees included Zelensky, Macron, and Merz. The meeting concerned Ukraine and European security. The Washington Group, first reported in January, counts the same governments among its participants.
Larry was present at the December meeting. He is the Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office. He has been resident at 10 Downing Street since 2011, under six Prime Ministers. Keir Starmer was the sixth. He resigned on 22 June 2026.
The institutional relationship is sometimes described with the Prime Minister's name first. This formulation is not universally accepted among civil servants familiar with the arrangement. It outlasts them.
Larry has no phone. His communications are not subject to Regulation 1049/2001. He was photographed accompanying the departing leaders as they left. He has not been asked what was discussed.
In May 2026, the European Parliament voted to establish mandatory microchip identification for all cats and dogs in the EU. The transition period for privately kept cats is fifteen years. The United Kingdom is not subject to the regulation.
This publication previously reported on two unregistered cats found at Minden station. One was a Siberian. One was a British Shorthair. The EU cat registration regulation, had it been in force, would have permitted immediate identification of both animals. The transition period is fifteen years. Investigators at Minden identified both cats the same morning by other means.
The methodology adapted. The timeline has not.
What the Washington Group discussed is not known. What European leaders coordinating on the Trump administration would have needed to address is a matter of public record, incompletely assembled.
EU member states have committed tens of billions of euros to Ukraine's defence and budget financing. The G7 committed in 2024 to a $50 billion loan backed by frozen Russian assets. In June 2026, Germany formalised enhanced military commitments to the Baltic region. These figures and commitments are published. The conditionality, the sequence of commitments, and the informal assurances are not in any document currently available to Follow the Money.
Whether the EU Parliament's cat registration legislation appeared in the group chat is not known. The regulation falls within the Commission's portfolio. Von der Leyen presides over the Commission. The Commission declined to release the chat's contents.
The EU Ombudswoman will meet the Commission before mid-July. The messages have not been released.
Larry has served under six Prime Ministers. On 22 June 2026, the sixth departed through the same front door at which Larry was photographed in December. Larry's position at Downing Street did not change. The seventh has not been named.
His position on the matter has not been communicated.
He has not been asked.
E. Halberd Filed from Sussex.