Procedure

2023 discharge: General budget of the EU - European Ombudsman

2024/2027(DEC)·10th term·CONT·DEC - Discharge procedure·Completed

Subjects: 2023 discharge

Rapporteur (the Member appointed to lead Parliament's work on this text): BRUDZIŃSKI Joachim Stanisław (ECR)

Summary

This is the 2023 discharge for the section of the EU general budget concerning the European Ombudsman. Amendments report the Ombudsman's budget implementation rate, staff missions and workload, and its inquiries on transparency, access to documents, conflicts of interest and revolving-door cases involving the Commission and other institutions, including the COVID-19 vaccine text-message case and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, as well as gender balance and geographical distribution of staff.

Procedure timeline

Committee amendments tabled
10 Feb 2025
Plenary vote — Adopted
7 May 2025 · On the proposed decision
Plenary vote — Adopted
7 May 2025 · On the motion for a resolution · the text as a whole
Procedure completed

Amendments

distinct, in window

Members

tabled at least one

Committee

10 Feb 2025

Dates

Plenary votes

3 roll-call votes

In plenary, Parliament usually votes in steps: first on amendments to the text (sometimes split into parts, so Members can accept one half of a sentence and reject the other), then on the text as a whole. The “main vote” is the one that adopts or rejects the text itself. Each vote below shows exactly which step it was. How voting works →

Where each group stood at the decisive votes

Group			Shift
EPP	For99%	For99%	consistent
S&D	For100%	For100%	consistent
Renew	For97%	For100%	consistent
Greens/EFA	For100%	For100%	consistent
ECR	For92%	For92%	consistent
The Left	For100%	For98%	consistent
Patriots	For78%	Against57%	For → Against
ESN	Abstained86%	Abstained77%	consistent
Non-attached	For73%	For81%	consistent

Milestones are the votes that adopt or reject text (not every amendment vote) — the percentage is the share of the group’s Members behind that position. Click a column heading to open the vote below.

7 May 2025Rejected
On amendment 1 · text to be inserted after paragraph 47
Official label: Après le § 47 - Am 1 · what was voted ↗
246 for267 against139 abstentions67 did not vote
Decided by 21 votes. The contested ground: S&D (124 abstentions)
Broke with their group’s line12 Members voted against their group’s majority
Individual positions: HowTheyVote.eu (ODbL). A group’s line = the majority of its expressed votes.
For
Against
Abst.
Click a group to see each Member’s position.
7 May 2025Main voteAdopted
On the motion for a resolution · the text as a whole
Official label: Proposition de résolution (ensemble du texte) · what was voted ↗
611 for8 against46 abstentions54 did not vote
For
Against
Abst.
Click a group to see each Member’s position.
7 May 2025Main voteAdopted
On the proposed decision
Official label: Proposition de décision · what was voted ↗
568 for54 against43 abstentions54 did not vote
For
Against
Abst.
Click a group to see each Member’s position.

Vote data: HowTheyVote.eu (ODbL, attribution) / European Parliament · roll-call votes only

Plenary amendments2 tabled on this text

Amendments tabled for the plenary sitting on this text, in their own numbering series. This is a different set from the committee amendments tracked elsewhere on AmendEU, and is not counted in any of the site’s amendment totals.

Amendment 1ECRMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 47 a (new)
Amendment
47 a. Expresses deep concern that, in 2021, following a request for public access to text messages between the Commission's President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company regarding the Commission’s purchase of COVID-19 vaccines, the Commission refused to acknowledge that such text messages fall under the definition of a ‘document’ as laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001; recalls that the registration of a document is a consequence of its existence, not a prerequisite for it; acknowledges the Ombudsman’s finding of maladministration by the Commission in this case and expresses concern that, to date, the Commission has not acted on the Ombudsman’s recommendation to conduct an additiona…
Excerpt — full text in the official PDF.
official amendment document ↗
Amendment 2PfEMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 15 a (new)
Amendment
15 a. Congratulates the Ombudsman for having dared to criticise European Union maladministration and, in particular, the lack of transparency displayed by the Commission President and her cabinet (for example the Pfizer affair) and revolving-door affairs;
official amendment document ↗