By Martin Banks - 12th October 2010
This is the second time in a short time that the ombudsman decided this way
Paul de Clerck
The European ombudsman has said the commission is guilty of maladministration in an "access to documents" case.
The case involves the long-running action initially raised by Friends of the Earth Europe which requested access to correspondence between the car industry and former EU industry commissioner Günter Verheugen.
The commission released only part of the documents but Friends of the Earth filed a complaint to the European ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros to obtain the rest of the documents.
In the process of dealing with the complaint, the commission released some further documents but still kept back a number of briefings.
After three years of corresponding with the commission, the Strasbourg-based ombudsman has concluded that "by failing to grant full access to the parts of the briefings relating to carbon dioxide emissions from cars, the commission committed an instance of maladministration".
His comments come in a letter to Friends of the Earth after what he calls "careful" consideration of the matter.
The Greek official notes that the commission apologised for interpreting the original complaint, back in 2007, "too narrowly".
In his letter, he says he does "not consider it necessary to pursue the matter further".
Paul de Clerck, of Friends of the Earth Europe, said, "This is the second time in a short period that the ombudsman has decided this way.
"In July he concluded that failing to grant full access to the Porsche letters by the commission was also an 'instance of maladministration'."
No one was immediately available from the commission for comment.
