Press Release: European Jews for Palestine submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman, Ms. Teresa Anjinho, against the European Commission.
The European Ombudsman is an independent and impartial body that holds the EU’s institutions and agencies to account, and promotes good administration. The complaint is on the Commission’s coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, Ms. Katharina von Schnurbein’s refusal to include the Jewish umbrella organisation ‘European Jews for Palestine’ (‘EJP’) in the Holocaust Remembrance Conference of 21 January 2025, organized by the European Commission together with the Polish presidency of the Council of the EU.
First, the Commission has failed to reply to two letters sent by EJP requesting to be included in the event. Then, one day before the event itself, only after an article was published on this exclusion by the EUObserver, the Commission finally replied to EJP request, answering that EJP will not be invited to the event, justifying this decision by arguing that EJP does not have sufficient ‘expertise on Holocaust remembrance and education’.
However, based on the lists of invitees and participants, accessed following an access to documents request the EJP have filed following the event, it was verified that EJP was the only organization that explicitly requested an invitation to the event and was rejected. Moreover, the Commission does not have a written document with any objective criteria or any kind of process to evaluate the relevance of an organisation to the event. The list of invitees and attendance show that the Commission invited to the event multiple organizations that apparently have no or very limited expertise on Holocaust remembrance and education, such as ELNET, the Anglican Church, Google, and others.
It is completely unclear on what basis the Commission made its assessment regarding the suitability of EJP to this event, considering that it has denied EJP the opportunity to be consulted on its expertise on the subject matter of the conference – Holocaust remembrance and education.
Finally, after the event, EJP wrote three letters to the Commission, in which it provided detailed information regarding EJP’s expertise and relevance to Holocaust remembrance and education. To this day, EJP did not get an answer to these three letters. Hence, EJP is not sure to be invited to the next similar relevant EU events and forums. While the Commission wrote in its short refusal letter that it wishes to ‘continue the dialogue’ with EJP, it rather ignores and excludes EJP in a discriminatory manner from relevant EU events, meetings, as well as the working group on antisemitism. In fact, the Commission does not even bother to reply to EJP letters.
European Jews for Palestine hopes that the European Ombudsman, Ms. Teresa Anjinho, will open an inquiry concerning the policies and practices of exclusion of this Jewish umbrella organisation by the European Commission.
References
- EU Observer: Guess who isn’t invited to Europe’s Holocaust memorials?, 20 January 2025
- EP parliamentary question of 19 May and answer
- Commission’s answer to the PQ, of 3 September 2025