Secretariat‐General Head of Unit - C2 Ethics, Good Administration & Relations with the European Ombudsman European Commission

 

 

Dear Mr X,

The European Ombudsman opened an inquiry into the above complaints and asked the Commission to reply to the complainants’ letter of 30 October 2023.

Thank you for having informed us that, following our request, the Commission has now replied to the complainants in the above cases. The ‘failure to reply’ aspect of the cases is therefore closed with the conclusion that it has been settled.

In their comments on the reply, the complainants made it clear that they would like the Ombudsman to pursue the inquiry into the substance of the Commission’s reply.

In the meantime, we learned that the Citizens’ Committee had decided to take legal action before the General Court,[1] following the Commission’s reply to the Citizens’ Committee’s formal invitation to act.

Following our request, the Commission kindly provided us with a copy of the Citizens’ Committee’s submission to the General Court. After examining the Citizens’ Committee’s submission, we have concluded that there is a clear overlap between the facts raised before the Ombudsman and the General Court.

Article 228(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU stipulates that “the Ombudsman shall conduct inquiries for which he finds grounds [...], except where the alleged facts are or have been subject of legal proceedings”. The Ombudsman’s Statute in turn lays down that “the Ombudsman may not question the soundness of a court’s ruling or a court’s competence to issue a ruling”.[2] It further specifies that “[w]here, because of legal proceedings in progress or concluded concerning the facts which have been put forward, the Ombudsman declares a complaint inadmissible or decides to terminate consideration of it, the outcome of any inquiry that the Ombudsman has carried out up to that point shall be put on file and that file shall be closed”.[3]

Therefore, as regards the substance of the Commission’s position on the matter, the Ombudsman has decided to terminate her consideration of it. The inquiry measures that we have carried out up to this point will be recorded on the case file, with no further action taken.

Yours sincerely,

Rosita Hickey
Director of Inquiries

Strasbourg, 29/05/2024

 

[1] Case T-151/24, End the Cage Age v Commission, application lodged on 16 March 2024.

[2] Article 1(5) of the Ombudsman’s Statute, available here.

[3] Article 2(9) of the Ombudsman’s Statute, available here.