04/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 4 May 2010, the European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, presented the Parliamentary petitions committee with his special report following his draft recommendation to the European Commission with regard to Complaint 676/2008RT. This affair followed the submission of a complaint from an environmental NGO refused access by the Commission to 3 letters from the carmaker Porsche addressed to the latter with regard to CO² emissions from cars. On 27 October 2008, the Ombudsman concluded that the Commission had been wrong to refuse access to the documents. Following this recommendation, the Commission had three months to give its opinion, which it failed to do. It requested six postponements and finally replied 15 months later. “I do not understand why there were six postponements”, explained that Ombudsman. The Commission justifies its action by claiming that it sought to find an agreement with Porsche in order to prevent the company having to lodge an appeal and for the deadline for providing these documents to be extended. This argument failed to convince the Ombudsman. He considers that, “the Commission's action was insincere and lacking in good faith” during the investigation and is calling on support from the European Parliament. (C-C.G)