On Wednesday 22 April, the European Ombudsman, Teresa Anjinho, presented her annual report for 2025, a year marked by unprecedented activity. The volume of complaints handled by its services jumped by 54% to 3,490 cases, compared with 2,264 the previous year.
Artificial intelligence is revolutionising the way we work. This statistical explosion can be explained in part by the fact that “AI tools suggesting the Ombudsman when people look for help in relation to the EU administration”. While this improved visibility is welcomed, it has led to an 86% increase in inadmissible complaints, often due to inaccurate advice provided by these tools.
To deal with this “new reality”, the institution has had to adapt its organisation, in particular by recruiting a dedicated AI manager and setting up a cross-functional working group. While the use of these technologies is being explored for synthesis tasks, the Ombudsman insisted on the need to ensure “that human oversight continues and that AI is not used to take decisions”.
Prioritisation of ethical issues. In 2025, transparency and accountability remained the main areas of concern, accounting for 38% of surveys. The year was marked by major investigations into conflicts of interest, including an own-initiative audit into the management of “revolving doors” within 15 European agencies.
On the digital front, Ms Anjinho launched an investigation into the transparency of the process for adopting harmonised standards for AI and dealt with requests for access to sensitive documents, including SMS messages linked to the EU-Mercosur trade negotiations.
European Commission comes in for criticism. In line with this, the Ombudsman pointed to “shortcomings in how the European Commission prepared several legislative proposals that it considered urgent”, arguing that the prior impact studies of the measures being presented were sometimes botched or even non-existent. The Commission has also refused to disclose a risk assessment for the X platform under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
As a result, the speed of implementation has undermined the traceability of decisions, making it difficult for the public to understand the scientific or political basis on which the European Commission’s proposals have been formulated.
Despite these challenges, institutional cooperation has remained solid. In 2024, “89% of solution proposals were accepted” by European administrations. Some specific improvements have been achieved: the European Investment Bank now proactively publishes more environmental and social data, while the European Commission has strengthened measures to prevent conflicts of interest for experts evaluating European Defence Fund projects. Finally, the EU’s Cybersecurity Agency (ENISA) has updated its internal policy for handling public access requests, following a direct recommendation from the Ombudsman.
Read the 2025 report: https://aeur.eu/f/ln4 (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)