Dear Mr X,

You submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman against the European Commission about how it dealt with your complaint in which you alleged that Portugal infringes human rights obligations.

You take issue with the Commission’s decision not to launch infringement proceedings against Portugal. In your view, Portugal systematically infringes its general human rights obligations in how it treats refugees referred to it by the United Nationals Refugees Agency. You claim that the Commission wrongly considered the alleged infringements to be of an individual nature.

After careful analysis of all the information you provided with your complaint, we have decided to close the inquiry with the following conclusion:

There was no maladministration by the European Commission.

We consider that the Commission has provided you with a reasonable reply. The Commission’s competence to act is set out in the EU Treaties. The Commission’s role is to monitor the application of EU law. The Commission will launch infringement proceedings only where there are indications of systematic breaches of EU law.

From the information you have provided, it appears that, in your complaint to the Commission, you alleged that Portugal infringes general human rights obligations, but you did not refer to any specific provision of EU law. In light thereof, we consider reasonable the Commission’s position that there was no systematic breach of EU law.

The Commission also provided you with useful information about how to pursue the matter through national or other international bodies.

Yours sincerely, 

Tina Nilsson
Head of the Case-handling Unit

Strasbourg, 28/05/2025