Remote inspection arrangements

Inspection request

On 30 April 2025, the Ombudsman requested:

1. To inspect an additional document that was referenced in correspondence that the Commission submitted in reply to the Ombudsman’s initial inspection request, in order to complete the file. The document in question is a table of cases that Commission’s Department for Competition (DG COMP) sent to the former staff member on 17 February 2022.

2. For the Commission to confirm that there were no other documents that fall within the Ombudsman’s initial inspection request, in particular in relation to how the post-service activity that the former staff member started in June 2024 related to the conditions that the Commission had applied in its Article 16 Decision of 1 October 2021.

Documents inspected and information exchanged

On 28 May 2025, the Commission replied to the Ombudsman’s request. Both the reply and the additional document as such are confidential.

In general terms, the following is noted:

• The table concerned was submitted for inspection. It concerns an updated version of the table that the Commission had initially provided in annex to its Decision on the former staff member’s Article 16 notification, dated 1 October 2021. The staff member continued working until 14 January 2022. The table that was sent to the then former staff member on 17 February 2022, was an updated table that DG COMP drew up that covered the period until his departure.

The Commission added that, in general, the aim of these type of tables of cases, or ‘case lists’, is to help former staff members to identify the cases which may raise conflict of interest issues at any time after their departure. The obligation under Article 16, first paragraph, of the Staff Regulations[1] to act with integrity and discretion applies without an end date and implies a prohibition of working directly or indirectly on any cases that fell under the former staff member’s responsibility while in service, or any cases directly related to them, including appeals brought before the European Courts against a decision of the European Commission.

In case of DG COMP, this includes the prohibition on dealing with any competition case, including antitrust, merger, and State aid cases, which were dealt with by DG COMP and fell under the responsibility of former staff members for the entire period during which they were working in DG COMP. The case list thus serves as a reminder of cases identified in the case-handling system, but it does not exclude other, related cases to which the prohibition may apply.

• The Commission confirmed that it holds no documents that were not transmitted to the European Ombudsman, in relation to her requests in this case.

Brussels, 5 June 2025

Jennifer King                                                                                                                 Koen Roovers

Legal Expert                                                                                                                 Inquiries Officer

 

[1] Regulation laying down the Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, available here: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/1962/31(1)/2014-05-01.