The complainant is a journalist who asked the European Commission to grant public access to documents related to the 'pillar assessment' of an international organisation that is implementing EU funds in the area of migration. Pillar assessments of international organisations implementing EU funds essentially vet the internal rules and procedures of those organisations, with a view to protecting the EU's financial interests. The Commission identified a number of documents as falling under the request and granted wide access to most of these, however it refused to disclose the actual 'pillar assessment' and a related draft. In withholding access, the Commission invoked an exception under the EU legislation on public access to documents, arguing that disclosure could undermine the commercial interests of the organisation, as well as personal data.

The Ombudsman opened an inquiry and sought to inspect the documents in question.