Romania held the presidency of the Council between January and June 2019 | Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images EU ombudsman opens inquiry into private sponsorship of Council presidencies Inquiry follows complaint about Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of Romanian presidency.

The European Ombudsman launched an inquiry into the private company sponsorship of the rotating presidencies of the Council of the EU, according to an announcement today.

That follows a complaint by international NGO Foodwatch criticizing the sponsorship of the Romanian presidency by Coca-Cola.

The NGO in February said it was “unacceptable” that the drinks producer was permitted to sponsor the presidency while Romania was overseeing discussions on, for example, revisions to the General Food Law or packaging rules. “This damages the independence and credibility of politics,” Thilo Bode, Foodwatch’s executive director, wrote at the time.

Informing the Council of her decision to launch an inquiry, Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly said the institution could consider amending its guidelines on how the presidencies are organized.

In a letter to Council Secretary-General Jeppe Tranholm‐Mikkelsen dated Monday, O’Reilly said the Council’s initial response — that it held no responsibility for presidency sponsorship arrangements — does not hold. She wrote that the presidency is “functionally part of the Council” and that “it is difficult to see why” the Council should not address or comment on the issue.

She asked the Council to respond by a deadline of September 13.

A Finnish government spokesperson told EUObserver this week that Finland had no plans to discuss the issue with other countries and that it had "decided to make an agreement with only one sponsor (BMW) during its presidency."

This story has been updated.