The European Ombudsman is opening an inquiry into the EU Commission’s so-called “Reality Checks,” a new form of closed-door consultation, often reserved for businesses and lobbyists, that feeds directly into the EU’s simplification and deregulation drive.
Ombudswoman Teresa Anjinho announced on Wednesday (8 July) that she has asked the commission for a written reply and access to internal documentation, following a complaint lodged in April by the lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO).
The issue at stake is the commission’s decision to exempt Reality Checks from standard transparency rules for meetings.
Launched during the early days of Brussels’s deregulation push — the so-called omnibus process — Reality Checks are a new “consultation tool” aimed mainly at business “practitioners.”
Their goal, according to the commission’s own operational guidance, is to “ensure that policy objectives are achieved, and administrative burdens are minimised.”
