Ms Ursula von der Leyen President European Commission

 

Strasbourg, 14/01/2021

Closed complaints 1141/2020/MIG and 1143/2020/MIG

Statements by the European Commission’s President and its Vice-President for Democracy and Demography in the run-up to the Croatian elections

Dear President,

Thank you for the Commission’s follow-up letter in these two cases, which I have forwarded to the complainants and the appropriate body of the European Parliament for information.

I welcome the Commission’s commitment to draw up guidelines clarifying the practical modalities for the participation of its Members in national election campaigns. It would be helpful if you could share a copy of these guidelines with my Office, once they have been adopted.

Since I did not pursue an inquiry into these cases, I will not take any further action on the matter for now. However, I will take the Commission’s comments into account in the context of my inquiry into complaint 874/2020/MIG^[1].

Yours sincerely,

 

Emily O'Reilly
European Ombudsman

 

[1] How the European Commission dealt with a complaint about how the Commission Vice-President for Democracy and Demography responded publicly to critical media coverage. See: https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/case/en/57079.