The case concerned a request for public access to four letters which the European Commission had exchanged with the United Kingdom (UK) government, concerning the UK’s failure to nominate a candidate for commissioner following the European elections. The Commission refused access on the grounds that there was an ongoing infringement procedure against the UK concerning the matter.

The Ombudsman proposed as a solution that the Commission grant access to the documents at issue, given the changed situation, since the UK has left the EU. The Commission accepted the Ombudsman's proposal and the case was closed as resolved.

The case concerned the way the European Commission handled an infringement procedure against Spain for its national rules on State liability for breach of EU law.

The Commission considered that the Spanish rules rendered State liability for a breach of EU law excessively difficult and sent Spain a formal request to comply with EU law in 2017. The complainant took issue with the time it was taking the Commission to bring Spain before the European Court of Justice.

During the Ombudsman’s inquiry, the Commission brought a case against Spain to the European Court of Justice. Thus, the Ombudsman found that no further inquiries were justified in this case.

The case concerned an unsuccessful job applicant with the European Food Safety Authority who obtained high scores for most parts of his job application but zero points for one criterion, which appeared to him illogical.

The Ombudsman inquired into the matter and pointed out that the recruitment of staff to EU institutions and bodies is characterised by a fairly high degree of necessary formalism and rigour. The Ombudsman noted that this, for instance, reduces the possibility to infer experience and skills from related sources or material. In this case, the information provided by the complainant needed to be more specific.

The Ombudsman therefore found no maladministration and closed the case.