European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly lauded for transparency work

An annual report into the activities of the European Ombudsman was welcomed by MEPs at a sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Monday, particularly in relation to her work on transparency during the pandemic.

Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews praised the ombudsman for her criticism of how the EU Commission handled a request by a journalist for public access to text messages between EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the chief executive of Pfizer regarding purchase of Covid-19 vaccines.

“Failure of the commission to disclose details of WhatsApp contacts between the president of the commission and the CEO [chief executive] of Pfizer underlines the importance of her work. Without transparency it is extremely difficult to gain public support for the difficult restrictions associated with the pandemic,” he told the Irish Times.

The ombudsman inquiry into the matter revealed that the commission did not explicitly ask the president’s personal office (cabinet) to look for text messages. Instead it asked her cabinet to look for documents that fulfil the commission’s internal criteria for recording. Text messages are not considered to meet these criteria.

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The ombudsman found that this amounted to maladministration.

Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly, who spoke in Irish about her annual report after the language achieved full parity with the EU’s other official languages last month, said it was “crucial to maintain transparency and accountability” throughout the pandemic to “allow citizens a better understanding of the decision making process”.

Rapporteur Eleanora Evi told the European Parliament that a "lack of transparency in dealing with the most serious health crisis of the modern age" was a "violation of the rights of our citizens to be fully informed". Ms Evi said the commission "in particular" had shown a "lack of interest in this subject".

The European Council also "continued to prevent citizens from benefiting from full, timely access to legislative documents", said Ms Evi.

The ombudsman had “worked tirelessly” to ensure transparency and “inquire into the integrity of measures taken to confront to the pandemic”, she added.

Ethical standards

Green Party MEP Grace O’Sullivan said the ombudsman had done “an excellent job in holding the EU to account when it comes to strengthening transparency and ethical standards”.

This included recommendations for the EU border agency Frontex to meet its human rights and transparency obligations amid serious allegations of abuses. Ms O’Reilly has also raised the concerns of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties over the protection of EU citizens’ data and privacy, and a lack of transparency in EU negotiations.

Ms O’Sullivan told The Irish Times she had “seen the need for more transparency in negotiations between the EU institutions first hand” as lead negotiator for the European Parliament in recent environmental legislation, the 8th Environment Action Programme.

“Too often I found that Member States and even the Commission would make ambitious pledges on environmental protections only to adopt a much more conservative stance in closed-door negotiations, knowing that their position would never be made public,” she said.