On Friday 24 July, the European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, opened an inquiry into the methods used by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to gather and assess information during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The same day, O’Reilly also sent a letter (https://bit.ly/336zblS ) to Andrea Ammon, the Executive Director of the ECDC, requesting the ECDC to provide her office with a set of documents by 30 August.
The Ombudsman would particularly like to inspect the requests for scientific opinions that the ECDC received from the Commission and Member States related to Covid-19, the Covid-19-related surveys that the ECDC sent to Member States, and the updates and information the ECDC received via the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) in January 2020.
“As Ombudsman, it is my role to ensure that the EU administration is working in a transparent, efficient and independent manner and that it adheres to the principles of good administration”, said O’Reilly in her letter, adding that she had already been examining the ECDC’s work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the end of the letter, she noted that, following inspection of the documents, “it might be useful” to arrange a meeting between her inquiry team and ECDC staff to obtain further clarifications. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)