Dear Mr X,

You recently submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman concerning how the European Commission (Europe Direct) dealt with an information request about Europe Day 2023.

In your correspondence with Europe Direct, you took issue with the fact that, at the end of March 2023, there was not yet any information made available online about Europe Day 2023. In your complaint to the Ombudsman, you were concerned that it was not possible to appeal Europe Direct’s reply, and that it took too long to send the automated e-mail it sent on 6 April 2023. You were also concerned that Europe Direct failed to address your additional questions regarding the latter two issues.

After careful analysis of all the information you provided with your complaint, we have decided to close the inquiry with the following conclusion:

There was no maladministration by the European Commission.

The Europe Day website[1] is managed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communication (DG COMM). However, the individual EU institutions and bodies are responsible for their own activities for Europe Day. This is thus not something that DG COMM or Europe Direct can control. DG COMM, through Europe Direct, explained that, at the point in time of your request for information, not all EU institutions and bodies had published their activities for Europe Day 2023. As such, it had not been possible to provide sufficient information online about Europe Day 2023. However, we noted that the website was updated well in advance of Europe Day.

Regarding your concern that it is not possible to appeal Europe Direct’s replies, we would like to point out that Europe Direct’s remit is to provide answers to general questions about the EU, and to help citizens navigate on the webpages of the EU institutions.[2] As such, while citizens should be given the possibility to appeal decisions that affect them[3], there is no requirement or necessity to provide for a mechanism to appeal the replies by Europe Direct, which are not legally binding.

You also raise concerns regarding the timing of Europe Direct’s automated reply. According to the Commission’s Code of Good Administrative Behaviour[4], a reply should be sent within fifteen working days. Europe Direct sent you a reply in seven working days.

Whilst it is regrettable that Europe Direct did not address all your questions, we do not consider there to be grounds to inquire further into this matter as we have taken a position on those questions above.

I appreciate this may not be your desired outcome, but I hope you find these explanations helpful. Thank you for having contacted the European Ombudsman.

Yours sincerely,

Tina Nilsson
Head of the Case‐handling Unit

Strasbourg, 08/05/2023

 

 

[1] https://europeday.europa.eu/index_nl

[2] More information on the Europe Direct’s role can be found at https://european-union.europa.eu/contact-eu/write-us/answering-your-questions_nl

[3] Article 19 of the European Code of Good Administrative Behaviour, which can be found here: https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/publication/en/3510

[4] https://commission.europa.eu/about-european-commission/service-standards-and-principles/ethics-and-good-administration/good-administration/code-good-administrative-behaviour-and-complaints_en