Head of the Corporate Affairs Bureau (CAB)
Department-Office of the Executive Director
EUROPOL 

Dear Mr X,

The Ombudsman has received a complaint against the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol). The complaint concerns Europol’s reply to a request for public access to documents concerning social media and/or OSINT (open source intelligence) monitoring. More specifically, the complainant requested access to documents regarding plans for such monitoring activities in cooperation with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) between 1 October 2023 and 13 December 2024.

In its reply to the complainant’s confirmatory application, Europol identified four documents. Europol granted partial access to two of these documents (e-mails and a meeting agenda) and refused access to the two others (e-mails) in their entirety. In doing so, it invoked two exceptions under its Management Board Rules on Public Access to Europol Documents^[1], arguing that disclosing the documents could undermine the protection of the public interest as regards international relations^[2] and the privacy and integrity of the individual^[3]. The complainant is dissatisfied with this outcome.

We have decided to open an inquiry into the complaint against Europol’s decision to give only partial access under its Management Board Rules on Public Access to Europol Documents (applying Regulation 1049/2001^[4]).

Regulation 1049/2001 states that applications for access should be handled promptly. It is in line with this principle that the Ombudsman also seeks to deal with cases such as this as quickly as possible.

As a first step, we consider it necessary to review the documents at issue in the complainant’s request. We would be grateful if Europol could send us the four documents at issue, along with the documentation relating to the consultation of third parties, if any, preferably in electronic format through encrypted e-mail,[5] by 27 February 2025.

The documents subject to the public access request will be treated confidentially, along with any other material Europol chooses to share with us that it marks confidential. Documents of this kind will be handled and stored in line with this confidential status and will be deleted from the Ombudsman’s files shortly after the inquiry has ended.

The complainant also raised three procedural concerns as regards Europol’s handling of access requests. First, the complainant indicated that Europol - as opposed to other EU bodies - does not assign clear case numbers to public access requests, making it difficult for applicants to keep track. Second, they are concerned that Europol sends its replies to confirmatory applications in the form of an email that does not contain a signature or reference to a Europol staff member. Finally, the complainant stated that it appears that the same entity (‘G2-01 Corporate Law’) is responsible for handling appeals of its own decisions, given that it signs both initial and confirmatory replies.

As regards the final concern, we noticed that Europol’s confirmatory decision in this case does not mention that it was adopted by Europol’s Executive Director, as required by the Management Board Rules[6]. Therefore, it would be helpful if Europol could clarify what entity dealt with the confirmatory application within fifteen working days from the receipt of this letter, that is, by 13 March 2025. Should Europol wish to provide any other additional views, to be taken into account by the European Ombudsman during this inquiry, we would be grateful if they could be provided to us at the same time.

As for the first two concerns, we have informed the complainant that there are insufficient grounds to inquire into these issues at this stage.

The inquiries officer responsible for this inquiry is Ms Paulien Van de Velde-Van Rumst.

Yours sincerely,

Rosita Hickey
Director of Inquiries

Strasbourg, 20/02/2025

 

[1] Available at: https://www.europol.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/decision_of_the_mb_rules_applying_reg_1049_2001.pdf.

[2] Article 4(1)(a), third indent of the Decision of The Management Board of Europol of 13 December 2016 laying down the rules for applying Regulation 1049/2001 with regard to Europol documents.

[3] Article 4(1)(b) of the Decision of 13 December 2016. The complainant does not contest the application of this exception.

[4] Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32001R1049.

[5] Encrypted emails can be sent to our dedicated mailbox.

[6] Article 6(1) of the Decision of 13 December 2016.