Decision concerning the rejection of the Research Executive Agency’s (REA) of an application for funding under the programme Horizon Europe and the European Commission’s rejection of the request for review (1553/2022/PL)

Dear Mr X,

You recently submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman against the Research Executive Agency’s (REA) rejection of you application for funding under the Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation. You also complain against the European Commission for not dealing with your request for a review of the legality of REA’s decision.

You argue that REA and the Commission have not taken into consideration the context of your application and the criminal activity that is preventing you from obtaining funding at national level for your project.

After a careful analysis of all the information you provided with your complaint, we consider that REA and the Commission replied to you in a reasonable and appropriate way. In particular, the Commission explained to you in detail on what grounds you may request the Commission to review the legality of REA’s decision rejecting your application for funding. The Commission’s finding that your arguments were not sufficient to warrant such a review is reasonable.

Therefore, we do not find anything to suggest maladministration by REA or the Commission.^[1] The Ombudsman has therefore closed the case.

I appreciate this may not be your desired outcome but I hope you find these explanations useful. Thank you for having contacted the European Ombudsman.

Yours sincerely,

Tina Nilsson
Head of the Case-handling Unit

Strasbourg, 08/09/2022

 

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