Dear Mr X,

On 19 July 2019, you submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman against the European Commission concerning the above issue. The Ombudsman has asked me to deal with your complaint and reply to you on her behalf.

Firstly, I am very sorry to hear about the challenging and difficult situation in which you find yourself.

After a careful analysis of all the information you provided with your complaint, however, our conclusion is the following:

The evidence and information provided in the complaint lead to the conclusion that there was no maladministration by the European Commission.

The Ombudsman must follow certain rules for dealing with complaints^[1]. Article 228 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union stipulates that the European Ombudsman can investigate only complaints that concern the administrative work of the European Union's institutions and bodies, for instance the European Commission and European Union agencies. The Ombudsman cannot look into complaints about other authorities or persons (Article 2.1 of the European Ombudsman's Statute). Therefore, to the extent that you complain about different national and international authorities, your complaint is outside the Ombudsman’s mandate

Regarding the issues you raise about the European Parliament, another of the rules governing the Ombudsman’s work is that before turning to our Office, the complainant must first have contacted the EU body concerned with a view to resolving the problem^[2]. In this way, the EU body in question will have an opportunity to deal with the problem at an early stage and without the need to involve the Ombudsman. Since you did not send us any correspondence with the European Parliament, it appears that you have not yet tried to resolve the problem with Parliament. Unfortunately, this means that this part of your complaint is inadmissible and the Ombudsman cannot deal with it at this stage.

We have examined the correspondence you had with the European Commission in 2016-2017 and have concluded that the Commission’s replies are correct and reasonable. The European Commission has limited powers in this area. National authorities are primarily responsible for individual issues in the context of migration. The Commission therefore correctly advised you to address these issues to the Greek national authorities. Thus, there was no maladministration in this regard.

I appreciate that you may be disappointed with this outcome of the case. However, we hope that you will find these explanations helpful^[3].

Yours sincerely,

 

Marta Hirsch‐Ziembińska

Head of Inquiries and ICT ‐ Unit 1

Strasbourg, 13/09/2019

 

 

[1] These are set out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and in the Statute of the European Ombudsman.

[2] Article 2(4) of the Statute of the European Ombudsman.

[3] Full information on the procedure and rights pertaining to complaints can be found at https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/document/70707.