Dear President,

I have received a complaint against the European Commission from Corporate Europe Observatory. I have decided to open an inquiry into this complaint.

The complaint is about how the Commission dealt with a request for public access to documents concerning applications of a former staff member under Article 12b, Article 16 and Article 40 of the Staff Regulations.

The complainant would like public access to documents concerning any such applications. In particular, it seeks access to a note of all job titles and dates that the former staff member in question held at the Commission and all documents related to the authorisation of any new role.

In its confirmatory decision of 21 March 2023, the Commission stated that it could neither confirm nor deny the existence of any documents held by the Commission and falling within the scope of the complainant’s request, as such confirmation or denial would be tantamount to breaching the EU legislation on data protection[1].

I have decided that it is necessary to schedule a meeting between the relevant representatives of the Commission and my inquiry team at which this case can be discussed. In particular, I would be grateful if the following questions could be addressed during the meeting:

1) After having registered the public access request, has the Commission searched for and identified any documents that fall within the scope of the complainant’s request?

2) In the past, the Commission has handled similar public access requests made by the complainant. While refusing access based on Article 4(1)(b) and Article 4(3) of Regulation 1049/2001, the Commission has provided general information on the processes to which the respective access requests related.[2] In particular, the Commission has identified (i) the documents that fell within the scope of the request; (ii) the number of requests the (former) staff member has made and their legal basis; and (iii) described the conditions under which the former staff member could carry out the new activities. Has the Commission considered following the same approach for this public access request?

I would be grateful if your office could contact Ms X. who is in charge of this inquiry, to agree the arrangements for the meeting to take place before 23 June 2023.

I have also concluded that it is necessary for the purpose of my inquiry to inspect any relevant documents, should they exist, before the meeting. I would therefore be grateful if the Commission could provide my Office with any documents it identified as falling within the scope of the complainant’s request, preferably in electronic format through encrypted e-mail,^[3] by 16 June 2023.

The documents subject to the public access request will be treated confidentially, along with any other material the Commission chooses to share with us that it marks confidential. Documents of this kind will be handled and stored in line with this confidential status and will be deleted form the Ombudsman’s files shortly after the inquiry has ended.

Yours sincerely,

Emily O'Reilly

European Ombudsman

Strasbourg,12/06/2023

 

[1] Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data.

[2] See for example GestDem 2019/1873, available at: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/6695/response/22045/attach/2/Reply.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1; GestDem 2020/4876, available at: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/8393/response/28285/attach/2/2020%204876%20Final%20Reply.pdf?cookie_p; GestDem 2018/4258, available at: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/5803/response/18691/attach/2/03%20Reply%20GESTDEM%202015%204258.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1%20%20; and GestDem 2020/2620, available at: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/7937/response/26703/attach/2/Reply%202020%202620.pdf?cookie_passthroug

[3] Encrypted emails can be sent to our dedicated mailbox.