What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Removed:EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Removed:The annual report on the activities of the European Ombudsman in 2024 was formally submitted to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, on 13 May 2025 and the Ombudsman, Ms Teresa Anjinho, presented the report to the Committee on Petitions in Brussels on 24 June 2025.

Removed:The Ombudsman’s mandate is enshrined in Articles 24 and 228 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Article 24 of the TFEU, as well as Article 43 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, establishes the right to complain to the European Ombudsman. According to Article 228 TFEU, the European Ombudsman elected by the European Parliament, is empowered to receive complaints from any citizen of the Union, or any natural or legal person residing or having its registered office in a Member State, concerning instances of maladministration in the activities of the Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, with the exception of the Court of Justice of the European Union acting in its judicial role.

Removed:Additional cornerstones, particularly bound to the Ombudsman’s role, are Article 298(1) TFEU, which sets out that ‘in carrying out their missions, the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Union shall have the support of an open, efficient and independent European administration’, and Article 41(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union where it is underlined that ‘every person has the right to have his or her affairs handled impartially, fairly and within a reasonable time by the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Union’.

Removed:The European Ombudsman helps people, organisations and businesses facing problems with the EU’s administration by dealing with complaints received, seeking to promote the improvement of good administrative practices by delivering suggestions and recommendations when maladministration cases and broader systemic issues in the EU institutions are identified. If the Ombudsman is not in a position to inquire into complaints received, the Office tries to help all those seeking assistance in all 24 official languages of the EU, for example by providing advice on other possibilities for redress.

Removed:In 2024, 17 770 citizens addressed the Ombudsman, of whom 14 782 were given advice through the Interactive Guide on the Ombudsman’s website, while 724 requests for information were replied to by the Ombudsman’s services and 2 264 were handled by the Ombudsman as complaints.

Removed:Out of the total number of 2 264 complaints processed by the Ombudsman in 2024, 875 fell within the Ombudsman’s mandate and 1 389 fell outside the scope of the Ombudsman’s mandate.

Removed:In 2024, the European Ombudsman processed 1 389 complaints that did not fall within her mandate, mostly because they did not concern the work of the EU administration. Nearly 36% of such complaints came from Spain, Germany and Poland. Citizens directed complaints to the Ombudsman with issues concerning equal treatment or discrimination, consumer protection, court cases, corruption, and employment. The out of mandate complaints primarily related to problems encountered with national, regional or local public authorities, governments and public service bodies, and national or international courts (such as the European Court of Human Rights). Some out of mandate complaints concerned EU institutions but were related to political or legislative work.

Removed:In the cases of the out of mandate complaints, the Ombudsman clarified its mandate and advised complainants to turn to other bodies that could help. For instance, the Ombudsman guided complainants to national and regional ombudsman institutions, to EU institutions (mostly the European Commission and the European Parliament), and networks, such as SOLVIT and the European Consumer Centres. Where complainants were unhappy with specific EU legislation, the Ombudsman advised them to turn to the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions.

Removed:In 2024, the Ombudsman’s Office opened 415 inquiries, of which 411 were complaint-based and 4 were own-initiative inquiries, while closing 427 inquiries (421 complaint-based and 6 own-initiative inquiries). As part of its strategic work in 2024, various inquiries conducted by the Ombudsman were wider strategic inquiries and initiatives into systemic issues in the EU institutions.

Removed:Most of the overall Ombudsman’s inquiries concerned the Commission (270 inquiries or 65%), the next largest number concerned the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) (27 inquiries or 6.5%), the European External Action Service (EEAS) (16 inquiries or 3.9%) and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) (14 inquiries or 3.4%). The rest were distributed as follows: the European Anti-Fraud Office (11 inquiries or 2.6%), the European Parliament (9 inquiries or 2.2%), the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (EUROPOL) (8 inquiries or 1.9%), the European Investment Bank (8 inquiries or 1.9%), the European Union Agency for Asylum (5 inquiries or 1.2%), other EU agencies (33 inquiries or 8%) and other EU institutions or bodies (14 inquiries or 3.4%).

Removed:The inquiries closed by the European Ombudsman in 2024 were settled by the institution in 261 cases (61.1%), there was no maladministration found in 66 cases (15.5%) and in 34 (8%) cases the Ombudsman found maladministration.

Removed:The length of inquiry of cases closed by the European Ombudsman in 2024 was less than 6 months on average. 212 cases (50%) were closed within 3 months, 152 cases (36%) were closed within 3 to 12 months, 44 cases (10%) were closed within 12 to 18 months and only 19 cases (4%) were closed after more than 18 months.

Removed:The acceptance rate (the percentage of positive replies to the total number of proposals by the Ombudsman) for 2024, which covers cases closed in 2023, was 82% of the cases. Of the 92 proposals made by the Ombudsman to correct or improve their administrative practices, the EU institutions reacted positively to 75 of them.

Removed:The top three concerns in the inquiries closed by the Ombudsman in 2024 were transparency and accountability (42.2%), culture of service (17.3%) and recruitment (14.1%). Other concerns include proper management of infringement procedures, good management of personnel issues, proper use of discretion (including in infringement procedures), respect for procedural rights, grants, procurement, contracts, respect for fundamental rights, ethics, public participation in EU decision making, sound financial management and whistleblowing.

Removed: Accountability in decision making

Removed:The Ombudsman found maladministration in the significant and systemic delays by the Commission in preparing draft decisions for granting or refusing authorisation on dangerous chemicals in breach of the statutory deadline of three months. The Ombudsman also found that the Commission’s failure to ensure sufficient transparency of the related overall decision-making process constituted maladministration. The Rapporteur strongly regrets that the significant delays accumulated by the Commission represent a major threat to human health and the environment as companies can continue using the chemical substances, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), worsening carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic for reproduction risks.

Removed:She firmly believes that the Commission must solve, as a matter of priority, all these severe shortcomings, complying with the legally binding deadline as well as rejecting any authorisation’s request and banning any of use of chemical substances in presence of persistent uncertainty for the protection of human health and the environment. The Rapporteur is convinced that the Commission should also fully implement all Ombudsman’s recommendations made following the outcome of her inquiry.

Removed:The Rapporteur is also firmly convinced that the continued authorization of hazardous pesticides must end immediately, stressing that the Commission must highly improve rules on substitution of hazardous substances in pesticides to favour nonchemical safe alternatives with a view to swiftly moving toward a sustainable food system and a toxic free environment.

Removed:According to the Rapporteur, the Commission must refrain from approving ‘active substances’ used in pesticides where no safe use has been identified or when additional data confirming their safety is needed in full application of the precautionary principle. Furthermore, the Rapporteur stresses that the Commission must ensure a fully transparent and free from conflicts of interest approval process, committing to put an end to the use of all synthetic pesticides by 2035 at the latest, relaunching the request of more than 1 million European citizens under the successful ECI titled “Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment”.

Removed:The Rapporteur criticises the severe lack of transparency around the sponsoring by private companies of informal meetings of Ministers, as well as cultural and social events, organized by the Council of the EU, regretting that such sponsors are also authorized to use the logo of the Presidency of the Council for commercial purposes. The Rapporteur believes that this practice must be stopped immediately, complying, inter alia, with the specific request in this sense already made by the Parliament some years ago.

Removed:The Rapporteur commends the remarkable work by the Ombudsman in urging the Commission to guarantee full and meaningful inclusiveness of all social and environmental stakeholders in its decision-making process as well as in helping preserve this latter from undue influence from industry. The Rapporteur appreciated the Ombudsman’s activities aimed at helping to improve the balanced composition of the Commission’s expert groups, with a particular focus on the EU Energy Platform Industry Advisory Group, considering the high social and environmental stakes at play with regard to energy policies. The Rapporteur strongly criticises the Commission decision to completely exclude civil society representatives from this Group, providing fossil fuel industries with privileged and unmonitored access to EU policymakers as well as increasing their influence on the EU decision-making.

Removed:The Rapporteur recalls that the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change in a new report of May 2025 to the UN General Assembly titled “The imperative of defossilizing our economies” called for a total ban on fossil fuel industry lobbying, advertising and sponsorship and to adequately inform the public about the fossil fuel industry’s deliberate contributions to the planetary crises and about their human rights impacts over decades.

Removed:The Rapporteur welcomes the Ombudsman’s series of proposals to the Commission aimed at improving transparency in the EU-US Trade and Technology Council, which serves as a forum to coordinate approaches and deepen trade, economic and technology relations. She believes that the Ombudsman’s recommendations must be swiftly implemented and be complemented with additional legally binding requirements to uphold the highest transparency and accountability standards, especially in light of the recent harmful Commission’s political agreement to further increase EU’s dependence on the United States in various critical sectors. The Rapporteur underlines that this agreement will clearly result damaging for the EU Green Deal as well as creating, inter alia, disadvantageous imbalances for the food and agricultural sectors in the EU.

Removed:The Rapporteur highly appreciates the Ombudsman’s investigations into how the Commission prepared a proposal to amend legislation related to the Common Agricultural Policy, deploring that the Commission did not carry out an impact assessment, decided not to consult environmental organisations as well as failing to appropriately consult the general public, thus failing to comprehensively examining the available evidence, in breach of the principle of evidence-based decision-making, as laid down in the Commission’s Better Regulation Guidelines and Toolbox, as well as in case law.

Removed:The Rapporteur commends the Ombudsman’s decision in 2024 to open an inquiry into how the Commission carried out a targeted data collection on the impact of the wolf population in the EU. She is deeply worried that the decision to downgrade the protected status of wolves lacking sound scientific evidence, aggravated by no public access to documents and insufficient efforts to implement adequate preventive measures, at odds with the provisions of the Bern Convention, created a very bad precedent endangering the overall approach on the conservation goals and management of wildlife and natural habitats.

Removed: Access to documents

Removed:The Rapporteur recalls that the Parliament approved with a quasi-unanimity the Ombudsman’s Special Report concerning the time the Commission takes to deal with requests for public access to documents asking the Commission for correcting its systemic delays in its handling of access requests, as they are in breach of democratic principles set out in the EU Treaties. The Ombudsman found that the Commission missed the legal deadlines for reviewing initial access decisions in 85% of cases and delays typically occurred on access requests concerning areas of significant public importance. The Rapporteur stresses that such delays have particularly serious consequences when it comes to legislative documents undermining citizens’ ability to timely scrutinise EU decisions and policies, hampering their meaningful participation in the democratic life of the EU.

Removed:The Rapporteur considers necessary pursuing an action against the Commission before the CJEU on the grounds of infringement of the Treaties, including Article 15(3) TFEU on the right of EU citizens and residents to access documents, in case the Commission’s significant delays in processing requests for public access to documents persist.

Removed:The Rapporteurs recalls that public access to the documents EU institutions hold is a fundamental right set out in the EU Treaties, playing a crucial role in ensuring that the EU institutions operate in a transparent manner, thereby reinforcing the legitimacy of and public trust in the EU. The Rapporteur is firmly convinced that the EU institutions must guarantee full transparency and the highest levels of citizens’ participation in the EU decision-making process, ensuring that citizens can keep decision makers accountable, fully exercise their democratic rights and have access to all the relevant information and documents, including while the legislative process is ongoing, as also stipulated by the CJEU’s case law.

Removed: Fundamental rights

Removed:In 2024, the Ombudsman concluded an own-initiative inquiry into how the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) complies with its fundamental rights obligations in the context of its search and rescue activities. The inquiry looked into how Frontex ensures the respect of fundamental rights in the context of search and rescue (SAR) operations, following the Adriana shipwreck in June 2023. The Rapporteur underscores that Frontex must fully comply with fundamental rights in all its activities, including in its direct or indirect engagement in search and rescue (SAR) operations, fully and consistently complying with the relevant International human rights law. The Rapporteur fully supports the Ombudsman’s suggestions for improvement aimed at addressing all shortcomings identified in her inquiry into deaths in Mediterranean, including her call on the Council of the EU, the Commission and the Parliament to establish an independent commission of inquiry to assess the reasons for the large numbers of deaths in the Mediterranean sea, with the view to, inter alia, making the necessary changes to prevent any tragic loss of lives from reoccurring.

Removed:As part of its strategic work, the Ombudsman also criticised the European Commission’s failure to inform the public on how it assessed human rights risks before signing the EU-Tunisia Memorandum of Understanding and expressed concerns about the absence of a prior human rights impact assessment (HRIA), notably related to the ‘Migration and mobility’ pillar of the MoU. The Rapporteur calls on the Commission to implement all of the Ombudsman’s suggestions for improvement in a timely manner, applying the most effective measures and upholding the highest standards of human rights protection in all migration-related issues.

Removed: Ethical issues

Removed:In 2024, the Ombudsman looked at conflicts of interest risks. In a complaint-based inquiry, the European Ombudsman also found that the European Commission, in dealing with an infringement complaint, failed to properly assess conflict of interest allegations concerning the then Agriculture Commissioner. The Rapporteur considers it of utmost importance that the Commission fully and consistently implements the suggestions for improvement made by the Ombudsman in its handling of potential conflicts of interest involving its Commissioners, ensuring that any decision-making process supervised directly or indirectly by any concerned Commissioner is suspended until a final decision is taken on the existence of a conflict of interest.

Removed:The Rapporteur emphasises that the EU institutions, agencies, bodies and offices must ensure full transparency and adhere to the highest ethical standards in their interactions with private stakeholders.

Removed:Relations with the European Parliament

Removed:The Rapporteur expresses her appreciation for the constructive cooperation between the European Ombudsman and the European Parliament, in particular its Committee on Petitions, as well as the other EU institutions. She congratulates the new European Ombudsman, Ms Teresa Anjinho, on her election and praises her commitment to ensure that the EU administration upholds a citizens-oriented approach.

Removed:UN Disability Rights Convention

Removed:The Rapporteur commends the overall activities performed by the Ombudsman in 2024 to protect the rights of persons with disabilities paying close attention to the EU administration’s implementation of the UN CRPD, a binding international human rights instrument aimed at promoting and ensuring the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities. The Rapporteur supports the Ombudsman’s viewpoint that, as a party to the UN CRPD, the EU should lead by example in complying with UN CRPD standards.