Mr Jean - Claude Juncker

President

European Commission

Strasbourg, 20/06/2017

Complaint 64/2017/NF

Subject of case: The European Commission’s public consultation on “excise duties applied to manufactured tobacco” not being available in all official EU languages

Dear Mr President,

On 16 February 2017, the European Commission sent me its reply to my proposal for an immediate solution in case 64/2017/NF, concerning the availability of a Commission public consultation in English only.

I regret that the Commission did not accept my proposal in this case, and that the public consultation in question, available in English only, therefore closed on 16 February 2017, as originally scheduled. Unfortunately, this means that it is no longer possible to satisfy the individual complaint that led to my inquiry.

However, I agree with the Commission’s view that a general solution is needed for the use of languages in all Commission public consultations. I thus welcome the fact that the Commission has now adopted new rules on the language coverage of its public consultations, which I understand it has already shared with its services.[1]

It is in the context of the more general inquiry into case 7/2016/PL that I will assess those rules.

This notwithstanding, I would appreciate it if the Commission could, in the context of the present inquiry, inform me of which languages its public consultation on “excise duties applied to manufactured tobacco” would have  been launched in, were it to be launched under the Commission’s new rules. I understand that the consultation documents would, at the very least, have been made available in English, French, and German[2].

I would be grateful if your reply could reach me within one month of the date of this letter.

Yours sincerely,

Emily O'Reilly

European Ombudsman

[1] Note for the attention of Heads of Cabinets, Directors-General and Heads of Services, Subject: Language coverage of public consultations launched by the Commission, 28 April 2017, Ref. Ares(2017)2209890.

[2] According to point 2 of the note: “2. All other public consultations need to be made available in English, French and German”.