European Ombudsman finds European Commission guilt of UCO maladministration

April 19, 2022 |

In Belgium, an Irish citizen wished to obtain access to a list of all countries of origin of used cooking oil (UCO) for the years 2016 to 2019, together with the volumes of UCO feedstock collected for each country for each year, as reported by the voluntary certification schemes for biofuels sustainability to the European Commission under the Renewable Energy Directive. The Commission said that it does not hold any document corresponding to this request.

The Ombudsman found that the Commission held detailed information on the countries of origin and the volumes of UCO collected spread over a number of documents. The Ombudsman proposed that the Commission should review these documents with a view to disclosing them.

The Commission did not accept the Ombudsman’s solution proposal. The Ombudsman concluded that the Commission’s failure to cooperate with the complainant and to take into account his clarifications concerning the documents he wished to obtain access to constituted maladministration. She therefore recommended that it should review the documents it holds containing the countries of origin and relevant volumes of production and import of used cooking oil for the period indicated by the complainant with a view to disclosing them.

The Commission rejected the Ombudsman’s recommendation. The Ombudsman regrets the Commission’s unwillingness to resolve this case in a citizen-friendly and service-minded way, closing the case, confirming the finding of maladministration.

Category: Policy

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