The complainant asked the European Commission to grant public access to documents concerning the use of encryption in law enforcement by EU Member States. The Commission identified seven documents as falling under the request but refused to disclose access to six of these. In doing so, it invoked exceptions under the EU's legislation on public access to documents (Regulation 1049/2001), arguing that disclosure could undermine public security and an ongoing decision-making process. The complainant asked the Commission to review its decision (by making a 'confirmatory application').

As the Commission failed to reply within the applicable time limits (considered an implicit refusal under Regulation 1049/2001), and incurred considerable delay, the Ombudsman opened an inquiry and sought to inspect the documents in question.

Following an inspection of the documents, the Ombudsman proposed the Commission grant wider partial access, in particular to parts of documents that describe applicable national legislation or case law. The Commission agreed to do so.

The Ombudsman closed the inquiry, welcoming the Commission’s positive response to her solution proposal but noting the significant delays incurred. She reminded the Commission that it should urgently address the ongoing issue of delays in its processing of public access to documents requests.