10/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a press release on 9 January 2006, the European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, welcomed the decision of the European Commission to give a Portuguese MEP access to a letter concerning the Portuguese excessive debt procedure. This decision was reached after the intervention of the Ombudsman who expressed surprise that, after the European Commission's refusal, in September 2004, to communicate a letter from the Portuguese Finance Minister, it had not consulted Portuguese authorities beforehand. When asked by the Ombudsman, the Portuguese authorities informed him, in September 2005 that the letter in question did not contain elements which could affect Portugal's economic and financial policy. The Commission's argument was that disclosure of the letter would undermine the protection of the public interest with regard to the financial, monetary or economic policy of Portugal.