6.9.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 342/63 Wednesday 16 February 2022
16.
Calls on the Commission to ensure an approval process for ‘active substances’ in pesticides, which is fully transparent and free from conflicts of interest; notes that the European Citizens’ Initiative entitled ‘Save Bees and Farmers’ has gathered over one million signatures across the EU and that this initiative calls for a phase-out of synthetic pesticides in the EU, for measures to restore biodiversity and for support for farmers to make the transition to sustainable agriculture; asks the Ombudsman to continue investigating the systems in place at EU level to make sure that the current policies and procedural safeguards in this field guarantee the highest levels of human health and environmental protection, and that the collection and examination of scientific evidence is fully transparent, accurate and free from conflicts of interest;
17.
Recalls that in March 2020, the Ombudsman closed her inquiry into how the Commission ensures that scientific experts who advise it have no conflicts of interest; calls on the Commission to improve its assessment processes of the independence of the scientific experts who advise it, including by fully implementing the Ombudsman’s suggestions following her inquiry on this matter, ensuring that the experts concerned do not have any conflict of interest;
18.
Encourages the Ombudsman to launch an inquiry on the Commission’s strategic approach in dealing with petitions, as its action, which is only limited to issues it considers of strategic importance or which reflect structural problems, and which therefore excludes individual cases, could affect citizens’ rights to petition and to good administration;
19.
Criticises the Commission for its failure to finalise the SIA before concluding the EU-Mercosur trade negotiations; recalls Parliament’s position that the environmental and social impacts of free trade agreements must be thoroughly assessed prior to the conclusion of trade negotiations;
20.
Criticises the decision of those Member States, which held the Presidency of the Council, to use corporate sponsorship, as it entails serious reputational risks to the EU’s image, stressing the importance for the future to refrain from any sponsorship; considers paramount the adoption of the most stringent rules preventing such practices from taking place with a view to safeguarding the reputation and integrity of the Council and of the EU as a whole; calls on the Member States to comply with their obligation to collaborate with the Ombudsman in full transparency;
21.
Commends the Ombudsman’s work to protect EU citizens’ right to access documents held by the EU institutions and to provide citizens with documents in all EU official languages; welcomes the Ombudsman’s initiative on the fast-track procedure related to access to documents cases, aiming to have a decision on the requested documents within 40 working days; underlines that in 2020 the average time taken to handle public access complaints is one third what is was before 2018 when this procedure was introduced; considers it paramount to guarantee full transparency and public access to the documents held by the EU institutions in order to ensure the highest levels of protection of the democratic rights of citizens and their trust in the EU institutions; believes that revision of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 (3) must take place as a matter of priority; regrets the fact that EU legislation on access to documents is very much obsolete, thereby also hampering the Ombudsman’s activities on this matter;
22.
Approves the Ombudsman’s repeated commitment to combating revolving door cases, including the one involving the EBA, which persuaded it to agree with her recommendations by adopting a new policy for assessing post-employment restrictions and prohibitions for staff, as well as new procedures to suspend access to confidential information immediately for staff who are leaving;
23.
Calls on the Ombudsman to continue her work to ensure the timely publication of the names of all EU officials involved in ‘revolving door’ cases and to guarantee full transparency with regard to all related information;
24.
Welcomes the inquiry launched by the Ombudsman into how the EIB handled its former Vice-President’s post-employment application for a senior position at the Spanish company Iberdrola that had received a massive amount in loans from the EIB; criticises the failure of the EIB to act on Parliament’s request to include in the Code of Conduct of the EIB Management Committee provisions preventing their Members from overseeing lending and the implementation of
(3)
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43).