Dear Ms X,

You submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman about the European Commission’s failure to reply to your confirmatory application in relation to your request for public access to documents concerning the expenses of a Commissioner for a business trip to Dubai.

We informed the Commission of your complaint and asked it adopt a confirmatory decision. The Commission has now informed us that it has done so in the meantime.

As the Commission has replied to your confirmatory application, the case is closed with the conclusion that it has been settled.

Having said that, the Ombudsman shares your concerns regarding the time taken by the Commission to deal with public access to documents requests and has issued a Special Report to the European Parliament in this regard in September 2023 (OI/2/2022/OAM).[1]

Please note that this inquiry concerned exclusively the Commission’s failure to reply to your confirmatory application. If you are dissatisfied with the substance of the reply, you can lodge a new complaint with the Ombudsman and provide us with the reasons for your disagreement with the reply. There is no need to resubmit the documents already included in your file. A reference to the present complaint number will suffice.

Yours sincerely,

Rosita Hickey
Director of inquiries

Strasbourg, 17/11/2023

 

[1] For more information on this special report, please visit: https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/special-report/en/175425.