Ms Ursula von der Leyen President European Commission

 

Dear President,

I have received a complaint from the civil society organisation ‘Corporate Europe Observatory’ against the European Commission.

The complaint concerns the Commission’s decision to award a contract to a particular economic consultancy. The purpose of the contract is to conduct a study on the “Commission Assessment of Future Market Entry, Expansion and Imports in EU Merger Decisions” (COMP/2021/OP/0003).

The complainant’s concerns focus on whether all applicable procedures have been duly respected as regards the assessment of any professional conflicting interests and the measures put in place to prevent any such conflicts. In particular, the complainant questions the adequacy of the measures agreed with the economic consultancy to prevent conflicts of interest, and whether the Commission has the necessary means to monitor the effectiveness of these measures.

I have decided to open an inquiry into this complaint and to examine how the Commission assessed the risk of professional conflicting interests posed by the consultancy’s bid, in relation to the specific tasks to be carried out as regards the study in question.

I have decided that, for the purposes of my inquiry, it is necessary for my inquiry team to inspect the file on COMP/2021/OP/0003, including any documents that the Commission holds on:

• the public procurement procedure that led to the awarding of the contract with reference COMP/2021/OP/0003, including the offer and supporting material provided by the successful bidder, and a list of the other bidders;
• its assessment as regards potential professional conflicting interests of the successful bidder;
• its interactions with the successful bidder concerning the conflict of interest assessment and the mitigating measures that were agreed;
• its internal guidance material for relevant staff who organise public procurement procedures and assess professional conflicting interests (with an indication if any changes have been made to any guidance documents since 2021, and if so, what has been changed).

I would be grateful if your staff could provide the above documents, preferably in electronic format through encrypted e-mail,^[1] by 8 September 2023.

Information or documents that your institution considers to be confidential will not be disclosed to the complainant or any other person without the prior agreement of the Commission.[2]

Following the inspection, it might be necessary for my inquiry team to meet with the relevant representatives of the Commission.

The inquiries officer responsible for this case is Mr Koen Roovers.

If, in the course of this inquiry, the Commission becomes involved in court proceedings concerning the same subject matter as this complaint, I would ask you to let us know.

Yours sincerely,

Emily O'Reilly
European Ombudsman

Strasbourg, 28/06/2023

 

[1] Encrypted emails can be sent to our dedicated mailbox.

[2] Please clearly mark such material ‘Confidential’.Information and documents of this kind will be deleted from the European Ombudsman’s files shortly after the inquiry has ended.