Ms Ursula von der Leyen President European Commission

 

Strasbourg, 17/05/2021

Strategic inquiry: OI/1/2021/KR

Subject: Inspection^[1] concerning how the European Commission handles the challenge of staff ‘revolving doors’

Dear President,

I refer to my letter of 3 February 2021 in which I notified you of the opening of the abovementioned strategic inquiry, concerning how the Commission manages ‘revolving doors’ moves of its staff members.

Thank you for your reply of 3 March 2021, which included the requested detailed numbers of relevant Commission decisions taken in 2019 and 2020 under the Staff Regulations^[2].

Based on this information, I have decided that, for the purposes of my inquiry, it is necessary to further inspect for decisions taken in the years 2019 and 2020:

• All documents related to the Commission’s Article 16 decisions for senior and mid-level managers of the following DGs: AGRI, CLIMA, CNECT, COMP, ECFIN, ECHO, ENER, GROW, HOME, MARE, RTD, SANTE, and TRADE, as well as the following entities: Cabinets, Legal Service, Secretariat-General and the Regulatory Scrutiny Board;
• All documents related to the Commission’s Article 12b/40 decisions for senior and mid-level managers of the following DGs: AGRI, CNECT, COMP, ECFIN, FISMA, RTD and TRADE, as well as the following entities: Cabinets, Legal Service and Regulatory Scrutiny Board;
• All documents related to the Commission’s Article 16 decisions for staff of DG FISMA (4) and those of the Commission’s internal think-tank/advisory hub EPSC/IDEA (21)^[3].

Taken together, the inspection would thus concern 100 files.

I would be grateful if your office could contact Ms Angela Marcos Figueruelo  and/or Mr Koen Roovers , who are handling this inquiry, to agree the arrangements for the inspection, preferably 18 June 2021.

Information or documents that your institution considers to be confidential will not be disclosed without the prior agreement of the Commission. ^[4]

Yours sincerely,

 

Emily O'Reilly

European Ombudsman

 

[1] Information gathering and inspections of documents are carried out on the basis of Article 3(2) of the Statute of the European Ombudsman (http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/resources/statute.faces#hl2) and Article 4 of the European Ombudsman’s Implementing Provisions: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/resources/provisions.faces#hl3.
 

[2] Decisions under Article 12b with Article 40: concerning outside activity during leave on personal grounds, and under Article 16, concerning occupational activity after leaving the Commission

[3] The Commission provided statistical information on non-management staff. The Ombudsman considers it useful to assess how the Commission deals with revolving door situations across the board.

[4] Please clearly mark such material ‘Confidential’. Encrypted emails can be sent to our dedicated mailbox.