The ombudsman’s function throughout the EU is to uphold transparency norms on the EU establishments. However its judgments are non-binding and rely on those self same establishments to be carried out.
O’Reilly, who hails from Eire and was the EU’s first feminine ombudsman, mentioned she was typically “pissed off” that the Fee selected to disregard her workplace’s suggestions and acted “time and time once more” as if “the individuals couldn’t be trusted with sure info.”
“When you had points, resembling the entire thing round Covid-19 and the vaccine contracts … although the suggestions that I made had been legally sound, legitimate … they had been nonetheless not acted on,” she mentioned.
NGOs, the press and even some ex-commissioners have lengthy criticized the Fee for a tradition of secrecy underneath its two-term president, Ursula von der Leyen, who has been accused of performing unilaterally.
O’Reilly was changed in 2025 on the finish of her mandate by Teresa Anjinho, Portugal’s former justice minister.
The Fee didn’t instantly reply to POLITICO’s request for remark.
