The European Ombudsman’s concluded after his investigation into a complaint by an NGO about Special Adviser to former Commissioner Kuneva, that the European Commission should improve its rules for the handling of possible conflicts of interest involving the tasks of Special Advisers and their outside activities. The Ombudsman also advised the Commission on how to improve the rules.

Nikiforos Diamandouros, the European Ombudsman has criticised the European Commission's rules for failing to adhere to the procedural obligations required by its own rules on Special Advisers. In particular, the Ombudsman’s intervention followed his investigation into a complaint by an NGO in which the Commission failed adequately to follow its existing procedures before it appointed a former President of the European Parliament as Special Adviser to a Commissioner.

Mr Pat Cox, former President of the European Parliament, acted as an unpaid Special Adviser to Meglena Kuneva, who was the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, from 2007 to 2010. In February 2010, the NGO Corporate Europe Observatory turned to the Ombudsman alleging that the Commission had failed adequately to address the issue of a possible conflict of interest between the Special Adviser's tasks and his remunerated activities for multinational companies, as well as lobbying firms.

The Ombudsman concluded after his investigation of the case that the Commission failed adequately to follow its own procedural rules. The Ombudsman therefore criticised the Commission for failing to adhere to the procedural obligations required by its own rules on Special Advisers, as regards the appointment of Mr Cox in 2007 and 2009. In addition, the Ombudsman called on the Commission to improve its rules for handling possible conflicts of interest involving the tasks of Special Advisers and their outside activities. Now the Commission has six months in which to inform the Ombudsman of the follow-up it has given to his remarks.