The complainant asked the European Commission for public access to specific emails and other exchanges related to EU environmental policies and legislation. The Commission granted access to part of the documents it identified as falling within the scope of the request. In support of its decision to redact some information, it invoked various exceptions under the EU's legislation on public access to documents (Regulation 1049/2001), arguing that disclosure could undermine privacy, commercial interests and the decision-making process. Regarding the emails requested, the Commission said they were not registered as it did not consider them to fall under its criteria for registering documents due to their content and short-lived nature.

The Ombudsman’s inquiry demonstrated that the emails pertain to “policies, activities and decisions” for which the Commission is responsible and were clearly ‘documents’ within the meaning of Regulation 1049/2001. As such, while the inquiry was ongoing, the Ombudsman urged the Commission to assess whether public access could be granted. The Commission registered the emails and agreed to examine them for possible disclosure under Regulation 1049/2001.

The Ombudsman found that the Commission’s initial failure to register and include the emails in the scope of the request constituted maladministration. However, as the Commission agreed to examine them in the context of the request, further inquiries were not justified. Given the considerable time the Commission took to handle the complainant’s request for public access appropriately, the Ombudsman urged the Commission to finalise its assessment without delay.