Ms Emily O'Reilly:

I do not have the figures here but I can certainly send them to the committee. They would extend, for example, to something like a particular environmental directive not being enforced or the Commission not doing anything about it. One I talk about frequently involved advice that had been given by the European Food Safety Authority in relation to pesticides and bees. Obviously that is a big environmental issue now. It always was but perhaps it has become more full focus with our obvious interest in all matters to do with the climate crisis, the environmental crisis and so on. Basically, somebody wanted to know why that advice, which was being deliberated upon by the Council and the member states, was stuck and was not being acted on. Obviously the reason is that there are member states who do not want to act on it.

The requester, which was a French environmental NGO called Pollinis, wanted to know what were the member state positions in respect of this advice. In other words, it wanted to know who was holding this up. Was it Ireland, France, Spain or Sweden? With that information, the organisation could then direct its own lobbying or influencing in respect of this but the answer was: “No”, because the Commission, which had charge of these documents, took the view that there was a greater public interest in protecting the deliberative process. It recognised the public interest, even though the Commission was holding this process up, but it reckoned that protection of the deliberative process was more important. I found that - I did not use this word then but I will use it here – to be ridiculous. The deliberative process is fine if it is for six months or a year but it is not fine if it is eight, nine or ten years.

Since then Pollinis has gone to the ECJ, which has agreed and has stated there is no reason these positions and documents should not be reached, which was entirely in line with what our office had said. It now has to go back to the Commission again, where it has to redo the whole thing. Some ten years later, people still do not know.

Another environmental case that also is of interest is one we did in respect of the BlackRock investment company, which is one of the biggest investment companies in the world using trillions and trillions of dollars it invests on behalf of its clients and so on. It also invests in the fossil fuel industry. There was a competition and the BlackRock investment company was given a contract to basically help to do some research on the rules that should apply to banks regarding investments in sustainability projects. The complaint we received was that there was a conflict of interest because BlackRock has, according to the complainant, a vested interest in the continuation of things as they are and that this is in conflict with the Commission’s very ambitious programme in respect of the climate crisis. We looked at this. We did not find maladministration because the officials who were dealing with the contracts and who had examined various applicants and so on were looking at the rules at a time when a conflict of interest was defined in a very narrow way and did not encompass the sort of conflicts the complainants saw. We did say, however, that the legislator should take a look at this. That is happening now because in the new financial regulation, there is going to be a review of the conflict of interest that would encompass the sort of conflicts of interest that the applicant and which, indeed, ourselves, had identified in that.

The point I made in this regard was that one has to see all of this environmental piece as a piece and even the small thing mattered. One has to keep an eye on everything and pesticides and bees matter. The contract with BlackRock matters and it all forms part of a piece. It is not just the really big climate regulations that we make that matter, as everything matters and that is why these small pieces are also important.

Obviously, people have become much more conscious of this and, let us face it, some are terrified by it. That is why we are seeing such an increase in the numbers of complaints. I will get the figures for the Deputy and have them sent to him.