The European Ombudsman has found maladministration in how the European Commission fast-tracked several legislative proposals by not properly explaining or documenting why normal law-making steps were bypassed.
Ombudswoman Teresa Anjinho told Dutch MPs in the Hague that her office received three complaints about the Commission using an “urgent” procedure for proposals linked to an Omnibus package simplifying sustainability due diligence rules for businesses, changes to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, and new rules to counter migrant smuggling, the European Ombudsman's office announced on Wednesday.
The complaints focused on how the Commission followed its own “Better Regulation” rules — internal standards meant to support evidence-based law-making — when it considered proposals to be urgent.
In joint findings, the Ombudsman’s office identified “several procedural shortcomings” that together amounted to maladministration, including a failure to sufficiently justify the urgency of proposals to the public and to document departures from the Better Regulation rules.
Anjinho said the Commission’s “urgent” label was used to set aside parts of the usual process, including public consultations and impact assessments.
Commission response and next steps
The Ombudsman recommended the Commission formally define what counts as “urgency” and comprehensively record and explain decisions to exempt proposals from standard rule-making requirements.
She also recommended creating a procedure to ensure urgent legislative preparation still complies with transparent, evidence-based and inclusive law-making principles.
The Commission sent what the Ombudsman described as an “overall constructive reply”, recognising that exemptions from standard policy-making rules in urgent cases should be properly recorded and explained, and saying it would reflect on ways to be more transparent as it revises its internal rules.
The Ombudsman’s office said it will analyse the Commission’s reply alongside expected comments from the complainants before publishing final conclusions.
