The complainant asked the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) to give public access to exchanges it had with the European Commission on a proposal for a regulation to prevent and combat online child sexual abuse (CSAM). The complainant also requested access to emails Europol exchanged with an organisation that works on fighting online child sexual abuse.

Europol identified a number of documents as falling under the scope of the request and granted access to parts of some of them. In withholding access to the rest of the documents and parts of documents, it invoked exceptions under the EU legislation on public access to documents, arguing that disclosure could undermine the privacy of individuals, public security, a decision-making process, and the protection of commercial interests.

The Ombudsman inspected the documents and took the view that there was scope for further disclosure. She asked Europol to reconsider its previous position and grant the widest possible access. She also proposed that, where it considers access cannot be granted, Europol better explain how disclosure would undermine the interests protected.

In response, Europol granted wider public access to some of the documents concerning its exchanges with the Commission and with the organisation. The Ombudsman welcomed this but regretted that Europol did not use the opportunity to better explain why full access could not be granted. She closed the inquiry concluding that Europol had partially accepted her solution proposal.