President European Commission

 

Dear President,

Thank you for your letter of 6 June 2025 informing me about the European Commission’s response to my Office’s suggestions for improvement in the above case.

I note that expert candidates will now be asked to list their family connections with links with the defence industry and their direct financial investments in defence companies, such as shares. The Commission will assess these type of personal interests of expert candidates at an early stage in the selection process.

The Commission furthermore indicated that it has a structured record for its assessment and ruling on declared or identified conflicts of interest. To take account of all the situations that the code of conduct for experts refers to, the Commission will now also ask experts to state reasons for potential conflict of interest when a conflict is declared or identified. Lastly, the Commission said the relevant IT system will be improved to also record potential conflicts of interest of experts that were excluded already at early stages.

I would like to thank the Commission for its genuine efforts to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest with the external experts, who evaluate and conduct ethics reviews, along with cost estimates, of proposals under the European Defence Fund.

Yours sincerely,

Teresa Anjinho
European Ombudsman

Strasbourg, 10/07/2025