News

The Ombudsman has made a series of suggestions to Frontex to improve the accountability of its operations and to ensure that people know there is a complaints mechanism they can use if their fundamental rights have been breached.

The suggestions follow a six-month own initiative inquiry assessing how Frontex has implemented new rules - in force since November 2019 - on its complaints mechanism and the Fundamental Rights Officer.

The Ombudsman has set out preliminary findings to the European Investment Bank (EIB) in the context of three ongoing related inquiries into the transparency of environmental information about EIB-financed projects. The preliminary findings include suggestions to the EIB on a series of measures it could take to improve transparency.

European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has launched a wide-ranging inquiry into how the Commission handles so-called ‘revolving doors’ cases among its staff. The inquiry is part of a reinforced monitoring of how the EU administration implements the ethics obligations on EU staff who move to the private sector. Read here the press release.

The European Ombudsman has launched her Annual Report for 2020. As in past years, complaints related to transparency and accountability accounted for the biggest proportion of inquiries (25%). The Report documents the Ombudsman’s proactive monitoring of how key EU institutions responded in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. The Ombudsman found that the European Centre for Disease Control has insu...

The European Ombudsman has published the list of 37 projects that have been nominated for the third edition of the Award for Good Administration. The digital award ceremony will take place on 24 June 2021 from 10-11:30. In addition to the overall award, there will be awards in four categories: Excellence in citizen-focused services delivery; Excellence in innovation/transformation; Excellence in c...

The Commission failed to properly apply its rules on managing conflicts of interest when putting together an expert group to give advice and policy input in relation to the EU Capital Markets Union, an Ombudsman inquiry has found.

The inquiry, based on a complaint by an MEP, examined the composition of the High Level Forum on the proposed EU Capital Markets Union, which gathered senior industry executives, international experts and scholars. The Commission took the Forum’s recommendations into account for its CMU Action Plan.

The Ombudsman welcomes the Commission’s constructive response to her suggestions for improvement following her inquiry into its decision to award a study contract to BlackRock Investment Management in an area of financial and regulatory interest to the company.

The Ombudsman has asked the Council to take steps to improve the transparency of its decision making after examining the procedures it has been using during the COVID-19 crisis.

While noting the major efforts the Council made to continue its work in difficult circumstances, the Ombudsman’s inquiry found that, for the initial four months of the COVID- 19 crisis, remote ministerial meetings did not meet the transparency standards that apply to in-person Council meetings in normal circumstances. 

European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has been awarded the University of Flensburg’s ‘Europa Prize’. The prize, which honours committed Europeans, is in recognition of the Ombudsman’s work on the transparency and accountability of the EU administration.

Following a six-month inquiry into the performance of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) during the COVID-19 crisis, the European Ombudsman has made a series of proposals to enable greater public scrutiny and understanding of its work as the crisis continues and the focus of that work moves to the monitoring of vaccine distribution. The Ombudsman has also suggested that ...