BRUSSELS, May 14 (Reuters) -

The European Commission did not provide credible reasons for

rejecting a New York Times ( NYT ) request to hand over text messages

between its president and Pfizer's ( PFE ) CEO related to

COVID-19 vaccine contracts, a court ruled on Wednesday.

Some EU lawmakers have criticised the Commission's

handling of the deals signed the height of the pandemic, while

good governance activists accuse the EU's executive body of a

lack of transparency that could undermine trust in Europe's

institutions.

The New York Times ( NYT ) had requested access to text messages

from Jan. 1, 2021 to May 11, 2022 between Commission President

Ursula von der Leyen's and Pfizer's ( PFE ) Albert Bourla in an effort

to shed light on the multi-billion-euro vaccine deal.

The Commission rejected the request, saying von der

Leyen had not kept them. It also said the messages did not

qualify as EU documents eligible for freedom of information

requests under transparency rules.

Ruling on a challenge brought by the newspaper, the

Luxembourg-based General Court - Europe's second-highest court -

annulled that decision and said the Commission had not given a

plausible explanation to justify not handing them over.

"The Commission has not explained in detail the type of

searches that it carried out to find those documents or the

identity of the places where those searches took place," it

wrote in its ruling.

The New York Times ( NYT ) applauded the ruling.

"Today's decision is a victory for transparency and

accountability in the European Union, and it sends a powerful

message that ephemeral communications are not beyond the reach

of public scrutiny," it said in a statement.

The European Commission said it would "closely study the

General Court's decision" before deciding on its next steps.

"To this effect, the Commission will adopt a new

decision providing a more detailed explanation," it said.

Pfizer ( PFE ) did not immediately respond to a request for

comment.

The European Commission signed a contract with Pfizer ( PFE )

and BioNTech to buy up to 1.8 billion doses of their

vaccines in May 2021.

A challenge by EU lawmakers for access to the contracts

was

upheld by the General Court

last year.

Wednesday's ruling was related to case T-36/23 - Stevi and

The New York Times ( NYT ) v Commission.