By hiding documents on the content of Commissioner Věra Jourová’s visit to Slovenia, the European Commission has breached a decision of the European Ombudsman’s Office. MEP Dr Milan Zver is convinced that they want to sweep under the carpet a scandal that has had the effect of undermining media freedom in Slovenia.
Slovenian Member of the European Parliament Milan Zver has already formally requested some time ago that the content of the conversations of the Vice-President of the European Commission, Věra Jourová, during her visit to Slovenia be fully disclosed. Among other things, she visited the Constitutional Court, where she met with the Court’s President Matej Accetto. The disclosure could shed light on the possible influence on the Slovenian Constitutional Court’s decision on the amendment of the Radio-Television Slovenia Act.
The European Commission violated a decision of the European Ombudsman’s Office
As a result of the European Commission’s delay in disclosure of said documents, MEP Zver received a letter from the European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, which made it clear that the Commission had to respond to his request to make public the documents of Commissioner Jourova’s visit by the 29th of January at the latest. The Ombudsman’s Office also promised to review the European Commission documents in question.
However, as MEP Zver pointed out on his social network profiles in recent days, Vice-President Jourová’s response to the Ombudsman’s request was highly inappropriate. Zver pointed out that by hiding these documents, the European Commission is also officially in breach of the Ombudsman’s decision. “Namely, the European Ombudsman’s Office has received a single document from the European Commission so far,” added MEP Zver. The Ombudsman’s Office has reviewed the document and, on the basis of this, has again called on the Commission once again to make the apparently controversial documents public as soon as possible in order to comply with Zver’s request. However, according to the rules, the Ombudsman’s Office cannot provide information on the only document they received from the European Commission.
Dr Milan Zver: “They are trying to sweep the scandal under the carpet”
With the current European Commission nearing the end of its mandate this year, MEP Zver warns that the hiding of documents is a major scandal: “It is clear that Věra Jourová’s mission to Slovenia was a truly unprecedented scandal, which had a major impact on the erosion of media freedom in Slovenia and enabled the brutal purges at the national media outlet, Radio-Television Slovenia.” He added something even more worrying. Those responsible in the European Commission are aware that this was their controversial intervention in one of the Member States, and they want to sweep the scandal under the carpet by any means necessary.
But MEP Zver is not about to give up and let them do it. As he has written, he will use all legal and political means to expose the controversial and “dirty deeds of the very top of the European Commission.” “I am obliged to do so in order to prevent any similar abuses in the future,” he added.
You can read the letter that the Ombudsman’s Office sent to Dr Zver in its entirety below:
“Strasbourg, 21/02/2024
Complaint 2515/2023/TM
Subject of case: The European Commission’s refusal to give public access to documents concerning the meeting of a Commission Vice President with the President of the Constitutional Court of Slovenia (EASE 2023/1995)
Dear Mr Zver,
I am writing to inform you that the Commission indicated that it was not in a position to take a confirmatory decision within the deadline initially set (29 January 2024).
As we have informed you, we also asked the Commission to provide us for inspection the document(s) falling within the scope of your application. We have now inspected the one document that the Commission identified at the initial stage and, based on that, we urged the Commission again to adopt a confirmatory decision as soon as possible (At this stage, in accordance with the rules goveming the Ombudsman’s work, we are not in a position to share more information concerning the inspection of the document).
Yours sincerely,
Rosita Hickey
Director of Inquiries”
A. S.
