Dear Ms X,

You recently submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman about the European Commission’s failure to reply to your confirmatory application in the context of the public access to documents request referenced EASE 2023/0860.

We informed the European Commission of your complaint and asked it to adopt a confirmatory decision before 9 August 2023. The European 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 document requests and has issued a recommendation in this regard in March 2023 (OI/2/2022/OAM[1]).

Please note that this inquiry concerned exclusively the European 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, 03/08/2023

 

[1] For more information on this own-initiative inquiry, please visit: https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/case/en/60766.