President European Commission

 

 

Dear President,

Thank you for the Commission’s reply in this strategic inquiry, providing clarification on the participation of external experts in the evaluation of project proposals under the European Defence Fund and, in particular, on the measures applied by the Commission to avoid conflicts of interest in the context of the experts’ appointment.[1]

Based on this reply, I have now decided that it is necessary to inspect the following documents:

• Any documentation containing the Commission’s assessments of the conflicts of interest referred to in questions 2a and 4b, as set out in the annex to my letter of 13 November 2023.
• Three files where experts did not declare any (potential) conflicts of interest, but the Commission identified an issue that it sought to clarify. Please include any documents related to how the responsible project officer ascertained the absence of conflicts of interest, as well as the relevant internal notes.
• The EDF Evaluation Methodology, setting out the rules and principles for the process of evaluating EDF proposals, as adopted by the responsible authorising officer.

I would be grateful if your office could contact the inquiries officer responsible, Mr Koen Roovers, to agree the arrangements for the inspection to take place before 10 July 2024.

Documents that your institution consider to be confidential will not be disclosed without the prior agreement of the Commission. [2]

Yours sincerely,

Emily O'Reilly
European Ombudsman

Strasbourg, 06/06/2024

 

[1] See: https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/doc/correspondence/en/185435

[2] Please clearly mark such material ‘Confidential’. Encrypted emails can be sent to our dedicated mailbox. Information and documents of this kind will be deleted from the European Ombudsman’s files shortly after the inquiry has ended.