The EU Ombudsman accused the European Commission of “maladministration”, after it took seventeen months to give public access to documents about a €28 million project in Senegal.
The public access request was about documents regarding a biometric identity project which was funded by the EU Trust Fund for Africa.
“The egregious delay of more than a year and a half in replying to the complainant constituted maladministration,” the EU Ombudsman said in a January 10 report.
“It is unacceptable for citizens to experience such long delays in obtaining EU documents,” said the Ombudsman in the decision.
We've found maladministration for @EU_Commission delay (17 months) in replying to a request for documents concerning a project funded under the EU Trust Fund for Africa. We continue to urge the Commission to improve its handling of public access requestshttps://t.co/xpO0xpUkCB
— European Ombudsman (@EUombudsman) January 14, 2025
The saga started in December 2022, when a member of the public requested access to documents about to a €28 million initiative aimed at modernising civil status in Senegal.
By March 2023, the commission had finally identified 33 documents that were relevant to the request. However, it only granted full access to six of these, and partial access to a further thirteen, citing the need to protect personal data and commercial interests.
Adding to the complainant’s frustration, the commission also initially provided the documents in an unusable format—a technical glitch requiring the Ombudsman’s intervention to resolve by April 2023.
Not content with partial transparency, the complainant escalated the matter with a ‘confirmatory application’ in late March 2023—a legal procedure allowing citizens to challenge the commission’s decision.
The commission acknowledged receipt of the confirmatory application in May 2023 but extended the response deadline to June 2023.
When that extended confirmatory application deadline passed without a word, the complainant turned again to the Ombudsman in July 2023.
Under EU regulations, European institutions are meant to reply within 15 working days from registration of the confirmatory application.
This response should either be to grant access to the requested document, or state the reasons for the total or partial refusal.
In February 2024, after reviewing the documents requested by the complainant, the Ombudsman urged the European Commission to reconsider its initial stance.
The Ombudsman recommended granting the broadest possible access to the requested documents, challenging the commission’s justification for withholding information.
The commission finally granted the complainant access to the requested document on November 14 2024.
The Ombudsman pointed out “almost 21 months have passed since the complainant submitted her initial request”.
This is not the first time the commission has been under fire for extremely long delays in dealing with public requests for information.
In 2023, the Ombudsman criticised the commission for taking over a year to answer sensitive freedom-of-information requests.
This report comes amid growing concerns over transparency in the European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen’s mandate. Last week the commission failed to disclose that von der Leyen was in hospital with pneumonia, despite direct questions from the press corps.
The European Ombudsman has criticised the European Commission for seemingly being unable to answer freedom-of-information requests quickly. https://t.co/GR8TW7Bl6F
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 22, 2023
