Ms Ursula von der Leyen President European Commission

 

Strasbourg, 04/05/2021

Complaint 1777/2020/KR

Subject: Recommendation on how the European Commission handled concerns about the composition of the High Level Forum on the EU Capital Markets Union and alleged conflicts of interest of some of its members

Dear President,

Please find enclosed my recommendation in the above case, made in accordance with Article 3(6) of the Statute of the European Ombudsman.

My recommendation is as follows:

To ensure the highest level of integrity of experts that are appointed in their personal capacity to act independently and in the public interest (Type A members), the Commission should diligently apply its rules regarding conflicts of interest of such members.

In accordance with the Statute of the European Ombudsman, the Commission shall send a detailed opinion before 31 August 2021.

In addition, I consider it is useful to make the following suggestions for improvement to the Commission:

1. The Commission should ensure that the types of an expert groups’ members, are specified in the expert groups’ final report.

2. If the Commission considers making proposals for public policy based (in part) on an expert group’s proposals, it should make public the declarations of interests of the Type A members of the expert group for as long as any such proposals are under consideration by the co-legislators.

A copy of my recommendation will be sent to the complainant.

I would be grateful if the Commission could also inform me 31 August 2021 of any action it has taken in relation to my suggestions for improvement.

Yours sincerely, 

Emily O'Reilly
European Ombudsman