The complainant asked the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) to give public access to documents concerning the extraction of information from communication devices of migrants. Eurojust identified seven documents as falling within the scope of the request, six of which were not already public, and gave access to parts of these documents. Concerning the redacted information, Eurojust invoked exceptions under the EU legislation on public access to documents, arguing disclosure could undermine public security and personal data.

Based on an inspection of the documents, the Ombudsman was not convinced by Eurojust’s arguments that wider disclosure of the documents would undermine public security. She asked Eurojust to reconsider its position and to grant wider public access to the documents. In doing so, she asked Eurojust to focus on three of the documents concerned, with follow-up adjustments to two additional documents.

Eurojust accepted the Ombudsman’s proposal and gave the complainant wider access to almost all the documents. The Ombudsman welcomed Eurojust’s positive response to her proposal and closed the inquiry.