Dear President Hoyer,

I am writing formally to signal this Office's withdrawal from the Memorandum of Understanding between our institutions. I had the opportunity to welcome you to the Ombudsman’s Office several times during your tenure as President to discuss the excellent cooperation between our institutions. I am confident that this excellent cooperation will continue without the need for a formal MoU to clarify our respective roles and responsibilities.

As indicated in constructive service-level exchanges in relation to the MoU, this Office believes that the purpose behind the MoU has largely been achieved and that the MoU no longer reflects this Office’s current practices. Rest assured that the Ombudsman will continue in its role as a second, independent form of review of the EIB Group’s activities and will continue to deal with allegations of maladministration against the EIB Group, including in its external lending activity. We stand ready to inquire into complaints from non-EU complainants if there are grounds to do so, as we have done to date.

The track-record of the EIB Group Complaints Mechanism has resulted in very few complaints being escalated to my Office. I also note that the EIB Group has published a number of internal policies about the group’s lending standards and procedures including as regards the transparency of its activities. I hope that the EIB Group will continue to build upon these advances to improve further the means of internal redress and to increase the information made available to external stakeholders.

I note that the EIB Group intends to revise its policy on its Complaints Mechanism, and is expected to launch this process in 2024. This would seem the most opportune moment to remove the references to the MoU, and to reflect the Ombudsman’s current practices. On the occasion of the next revision of the EIB Transparency Policy, it would be helpful to specify that public access complaints are admissible before the Ombudsman following the adoption by the EIB Group of its confirmatory decision whether express or implied. This change in my Office’s practice is consistent with how I handle similar complaints from other EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies.

I wish you every success in your next endeavours and thank you once again for the excellent cooperation.

Yours sincerely,

Emily O’Reilly,
European Ombudsman