Martin Schulz, the European Parliament's president, warned the ombudsman. | ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Schulz warns watchdog over transparency probe Parliament president tells ombudsman not to meddle in secretive three-way talks.

The European Parliament's leadership has fired a warning shot at the European Ombudsman over its investigation into a controversial behind-closed-doors deal-making process, telling the watchdog it has no authority to get involved.

Martin Schulz, the Parliament's president, has written to Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly, warning her that making "substantive choices on the preferable legislative options" remain a prerogative of MEPs and cannot be scrutinized by the ombudsman, who investigates complaints about EU administration.

In May, the ombudsman opened an investigation into the transparency of the so-called "trilogue" process, in which representatives of Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of Ministers meet to thrash out the detail of proposed legislation.

As part of the investigation, O'Reilly asked the three institutions to provide her with information on how the meetings work, arguing that under the Lisbon Treaty, signed by EU member countries in 2007, they had an obligation to make the legislative process more transparent.

But in correspondence obtained by POLITICO, Schulz warned the ombudsman that while he would accept her questions about the administrative side of the process, on the handling of documents, she had no authority over the legislative side of the informal meetings.

"Given the absence of sufficient grounds pointing at a case of maladministration and given the fact that only a part of the [ombudsman's] questions addresses administrative matters, it is understood that the inquiry does not fall entirely within the ombudsman's mandate," Schulz wrote.



Parliament is also set to deny the ombudsman's request to the chairs of five parliamentary committees to allow members of her staff to attend some three-way talks as observers.

While Schulz's letter does not address the request directly, his office said it was not possible "for the Parliament to decide unilaterally to invite the ombudsman to trilogues" and that the consent of both the Commission and the Council would be required.

However, Schulz's spokesman Armin Machmer said Parliament would not object to giving O'Reilly access to "all documents" relating to these meetings, in order to "give more insight into the precise functioning of our procedures."

The five committees — including budget, economics and budgetary control — will respond later this week to the ombudsman's request to attend a meeting.



Parliament sources said Schulz had referred O'Reilly's request for access to the meeting process to the Parliament's legal team, which concluded that it did not come under the watchdog's purview.

Schulz's letter to O'Reilly's request was met with derision by Philippe Lamberts, a Belgian Green MEP.

“Mr. Schulz tends to use and abuse what he believes is law," Lamberts said Tuesday during a press conference to launch an initiative to encourage MEPs to disclose their contact with lobbyists. "I do not see any problem in allowing the ombudsman to witness one or two of these trilogue meetings," he said.

The Council said it has not been formally approached on the matter. However, according to an EU official, if any approach were made, the Council's response would be similar to the Parliament's.

The ombudsman's office has conceded that it does not have the legal mandate to attend the three-way talks without being invited. However, its investigation is proceeding, with public consultation starting next week and recommendations to be made next Spring.