President European Commission

 

 

Dear President,

My Office regularly receives complaints about delays in how the European Commission handles infringement complaints and how it communicates with complainants, and this is something that we have been monitoring at a systemic level. To this end, we took note of the Stocktaking report on the Commission working methods for monitoring the application of EU law, which was published by the Commission on 14 July 2023.[1] As the report contains many relevant findings and recommendations, I have decided to launch this strategic initiative to follow up on the actions that the Commission has taken or intends to take to implement these recommendations.

The Commission’s online infringements database[2] still contains a large number of cases that have been ongoing for a significant time. Moreover, interested members of the public can obtain only limited information on each case contained in the database. The information in the database is sometimes old and possibly outdated.

The complaints I receive further show that the Commission could do better in terms of communicating with complainants. I regularly open inquiries because the Commission has failed to provide regular and timely updates on the status of a case. Sometimes the Commission sends complainants holding replies that contain standardised wording, without any specific information regarding their case. Complainants find this frustrating, in particular where the Commission has also incurred significant delays.

Against this background, I would appreciate it if the Commission could provide answers to the following questions, including in the context of how it is implementing the recommendations of the stocktaking report:

1. Communicating with complainants

The stocktaking report refers extensively to the Commission’s relations with complainants and identifies room for improvement on a number of aspects in that regard. To give some concrete examples, according to the stocktaking report “[c]ommunication with complainants continues with every step of the procedure”, but the Commission could explore expanding the use of templates to help draft more personalised replies.

The report further refers to filtering of cases and says that “complainants are entitled to a swift answer from the Commission, particularly when it is clear early on that no follow-up will be given to the complaint. Certain gains could be achieved by better screening and early treatment of correspondence that do not qualify as complaints”. Regarding the obligation of carrying out a preliminary assessment of complaints within two months, introduced by the 2020 Long-term Action Plan for better implementation and enforcement of single market rules, the report refers to the fact that this often amounts to a ‘holding reply’ without added value for the complainants and that there is room to refine this obligation. The report also says that “there is scope for improvement of how services monitor the different stages of assessing complaints, including the obligation to send a holding reply. This could be done by keeping track in the corporate IT application of which complaints are due for a form of contact with the complainant and by considering sending automatic replies.”

• What steps has the Commission taken in respect of the above, in particular to ensure complainants are proactively and regularly informed about the state of play of their case?
• Could the Commission consider introducing an online portal, where complainants can set up an account, with a case-tracking tool and the possibility to receive notifications about new developments in the assessment of their complaints or infringement procedures opened following their complaints?
• For ‘multiple complaints’, the Commission currently may decide to communicate about the case on its website and not directly with the complainants. However, there are separate webpages (for example, for acknowledgements of receipt and decisions and notices) for different procedural stages and multiple complaints are not searchable through the main database. Could the Commission consider centralising the information it publishes on multiple complaints and/or making this searchable with the case reference in its infringements database?

2. Information on ongoing infringement procedures on the dedicated website[3]

The stocktaking report includes the commitment to “revamp” the dedicated website for infringement proceedings, including by making it more user-friendly, facilitating searches by topic and publishing additional relevant information on infringement procedures. It is not yet evident from the website if and how the Commission has followed up on this.

• What steps has the Commission taken or does it plan to take to follow up on this?
• More specifically, could the Commission:

a) Provide a clear description of the subject matter of each case;

b) Update the database more regularly;

c) Publish, in addition to the information on the key procedural steps it already publishes, further specific information on the current status of the case such as “under the Commission’s legal review” or “legislative procedure at Member State level started on ...”; and

d) Give interested individuals the possibility to receive email alerts when the Commission updates information on a case of interest to them in its database?

3. Delays

As the stocktaking report noted, “[t]here is room for improvement as regards the time needed to handle infringements”.

• What progress has the Commission made in implementing the proposals concerning efficiency gains and dialogue with Member State authorities?
• In addition to this, could the Commission reflect on how it could avoid longer periods of inactivity in a case (such as adequate monitoring mechanisms, including IT tools)?
• Where the Commission intentionally decides to put a case on hold, could it ensure that such a decision, and the reasons on which it is based, are adequately documented in the case file?

I would be grateful if you could reply by 31 October 2024 and intend to publish that reply. Please feel free to share with my Office any other information about the follow-up to the stocktaking report that the Commission may consider useful.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mr Josef Nejedly or Ms Natalia Chiner Ridaura, who are in charge of this strategic initiative.

Yours sincerely,

Emily O'Reilly
European Ombudsman

Strasbourg, 02/07/2024

 

[1] Staff working document, SWD(2023) 254 final: https://commission.europa.eu/system/files/2023-10/SWD_2023_254_stocktaking%20report_en.pdf

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/atwork/applying-eu-law/infringements-proceedings/infringement_decisions/

[3] https://ec.europa.eu/atwork/applying-eu-law/infringements-proceedings/infringement_decisions/?lang_code=EN&typeOfSearch=false&active_only=1&noncom=0&r_dossier=&decision_date_from=&decision_date_to=&title=&submit=Search