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The case concerned the European Data Protection Supervisor’s (EDPS) refusal to grant public access to documents related to an investigation into the EU institutions’ compliance with the Schrems II ruling. In that judgment, the Court of Justice ruled on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-US Privacy Shield, with considerable consequences for the way personal data can be transferred to third countries, in particular to the United States. The EDPS took the view that disclosing the documents would undermine an ongoing decision-making process.

The Ombudsman’s inquiry team inspected the documents in question and found that, while it is reasonable to consider that the disclosure of some information contained in those documents is likely to undermine the purpose of investigations, several documents also contain information that cannot reasonably be understood to undermine that purpose. The Ombudsman therefore proposed to the EDPS to review its position on the complainant’s request, with a view to granting the widest possible public access.

In its reply, the EDPS agreed to grant partial public access to some of the documents identified. It refused access to two documents, arguing that these documents contain information about the EDPS’s internal methodologies and that their disclosure could compromise the effective use of the EDPS’s means of investigation in the future. By agreeing to grant partial public access to the documents at issue, the Ombudsman considers that the EDPS has resolved the complaint. She therefore closed the case.