On 14 September 2011, BETTER FINANCE (then “EuroInvestors”) and BEUC (the European Consumer Organization) filed complaints with the European Ombudsman against the nominations of the members of the Stakeholder Groups set up by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA).
In December 2013 the European Ombudsman, after careful analysis of the information submitted, decided to close her enquiry and issued critical remarks pertaining to the fact that the EBA committed an instance of maladministration as regards the composition of the BSG stakeholder group and “failed to ensure an appropriate geographical and gender balance and representation of stakeholders across the Union”.
Whereas there have been improvements, industry representation still considerably outnumbers end-users in the EBA and EIOPA stakeholder groups. BETTER FINANCE believes these decisions violate the European Financial Reform Regulations, which require a balanced proportion of the different stakeholders.
On 14 May 2014 the European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, announced further investigations into the composition and transparency of the Commission’s expert groups. In a first stage she is launching a public consultation and asking for feedback from interested parties on these issues.
The invitation to the public consultation is available here.