President European Commission

 

Dear President,

I have received a complaint against the European Commission. I have decided to open an inquiry into this complaint.

The complainants, four civil society organisations, consider that the Commission has failed to comply with its applicable rules on Special Advisers and with Articles 11 and 11a of the EU Staff Regulations when appointing the Special Envoy for Industrial Artificial Intelligence. In particular, the complainants argue that the Commission did not properly identify, assess and address actual or potential conflicts of interest and would like the Commission to revoke the appointment.

To examine this matter, I consider it necessary to inspect the following documents:

1. The request for the appointment of the Special Envoy for Industrial Artificial Intelligence, including the Envoy’s CV and the statement of assurance regarding conflicts of interest;

2. The declarations, statements of activities and any declarations of interests submitted by the Special Envoy in connection with the appointment;

3. The Commission’s internal assessment of actual, potential or perceived conflicts of interest linked to the appointment;

4. Any related documents showing how the Commission assessed the compatibility of the appointment with the applicable rules;

5. Documents setting out any safeguards, recusals, screening arrangements, restrictions on tasks or access, or other mitigating measures adopted for the duration of the mandate of the Special Envoy for Industrial Artificial Intelligence;

6. Any reassessment carried out after the appointment, if applicable.

I would be grateful if the relevant Commission staff could contact the Inquiries Officer responsible, Mr Koen Roovers, to agree the arrangements for the inspection to take place before 18 December 2026.

The inspection may be followed up by a meeting with the relevant staff members to clarify the documents.

Information or documents that the Commission considers to be confidential will not be disclosed to the complainant or any other person without the prior agreement of the Commission.[1]

Yours sincerely,

Teresa Anjinho 
European Ombudsman 

Strasbourg, 10/11/2026 

 

[1] Please clearly mark such material ‘Confidential’. Encrypted emails can be sent to our dedicated mailbox. Information and documents of this kind will be deleted from the European Ombudsman’s files shortly after the inquiry has ended.