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EU-USA: Decision of the European Ombudsman closing the inquiry into complaint 1148/2013/TN against the European Police Office (Europol)

14 January 2015

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"The case concerned Europol's refusal to give public access to a document on the implementation of the EU -US Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) Agreement. in order to ascertain whether Europol correctly applied the relevant rules on access to its documents, the Ombudsman needed to see the document concerned. However, Europol claimed it was unable to allow the Ombudsman to inspect the document, since to do so required the consent of the US authorities and the US authorities had refused to give consent.

According to the "technical modalities" agreed between the EU and the US for implementing the TFTP Agreement, the US has a right of veto on the sharing by Europol with third parties of any information provided by the US. The US made use of this veto in this instance and refused consent. The Ombudsman met with the US ambassador to the EU but the US maintained the veto. Accordingly, although Europol cooperated fully with the Ombudsman, the Ombudsman was unable to inspect the document. The Ombudsman therefore had no alternative but to close her inquiry.

However, she asked the European Parliament to consider whether it is acceptable that an agreement with a foreign government should prevent the Ombudsman from doing her job. She pointed out, in particular, that the provisions of the "technical modalities", unlike the TFTP Agreement itself, had never been sent to the Council or to Parliament for their approval."

See the full text: Decision of the European Ombudsman closing the inquiry into complaint 1148/2013/TN against the European Police Office (Europol) (pdf) presented to the LIBE Committee on 8-9 January 2015

See also: Commission response backing the USA refusal of access (pdf) and: Europol chief takes instructions on document access from Americans (euobserver, link)

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