President European Commission

 

Dear President,

Thank you for the Commission’s detailed reply of 29 August 2023 to my questions in the above case.

Based on your reply and the complainant’s comments on that reply, attached to this letter, I have decided that it is necessary for my inquiry team to meet with the relevant representatives of the Commission to clarify the following matters:

• the comprehensiveness of the Commission’s reply to the concerns raised by the complainant (and other organisations) about the scientific assessment underlying the impact assessment report, especially the concerns regarding the impact on the natural environment;
• how the Commission verified the declarations by the private sector regarding possible applications of new genomic techniques; and
• the number of requests for public access to records of bilateral meetings with Member States concerning this legislative proposal and the Commission’s reply to these requests, as well as the possibility of a proactive publication of these records.

I would be grateful if your office could contact Mr Michał Krajewski, who is in charge of this inquiry, to agree the arrangements for the meeting to take place before 15 January 2024.

Prior to that meeting, it would be useful for my inquiry team to inspect the “Better Regulation Toolbox - July 2017”,^[1] and any other Better Regulation document in force at the time specifying the contents of inception impact assessments. I would be grateful to receive this documentation by 5 December 2023.

Yours sincerely,

Emily O'Reilly
European Ombudsman

Strasbourg, 29/11/2023

 

[1] As mentioned in the Commission’s reply on p. 10.