civicforensics

EUR 700 Million for Generative AI: Can the EU Trace Public Funding from AI Pilot to Administrative Effect?

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GenAI4EU is moving from AI policy into publicly funded deployment. With close to EUR 700 million planned and three public-administration pilots already under way, the accountability question is whether Europe can trace public money from grant and procurement to the administrative capability, decision support and measurable public value it produces.

When the Consultation Itself Becomes Evidence: The CO2 Transport Inquiry and Better Regulation

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The European Ombudsman has opened an inquiry into how the European Commission conducted a public consultation on its planned legislation for CO2 transportation. The case matters because it shifts scrutiny upstream: from the final legislative proposal to the way the Commission constructs the evidence base that is supposed to justify it.

DG TRADE and the Tobacco Lobby: When Transparency Becomes a Compliance Test

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The European Ombudswoman’s inquiry into DG TRADE’s contacts with tobacco-industry representatives creates a test that goes beyond meeting disclosure. The central question is whether the Commission can reconstruct why contacts were necessary, what followed them, and whether corrective measures adopted after an earlier maladministration finding worked in practice.

Europol 2.0 Needs More Than More Data: The Accountability Question Behind the New Framework

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A new regulatory framework for Europol should be judged not only by the additional data and analytical capacity it provides, but by whether the resulting exercise of law-enforcement power remains traceable, reviewable and subject to effective independent supervision.

Consistency Is Not Accountability: The Oversight Question Behind the EUDPR Reform

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The proposed reform of the EU data-protection framework for operational processing in justice and home affairs promises greater consistency. The harder question is whether simplification will preserve effective independent supervision over increasingly data-intensive EU bodies.

Portugal’s First Lobbying Law: Transparency or Self-Supervision?

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Executive summary Portugal’s first lobbying-transparency framework entered the implementation phase in late July 2026. It creates a transparency register for legitimate interest representation before public bodies. The reform is important because it introduces a formal disclosure mechanism where Portugal previously lacked a comprehensive lobbying register. The existence of a register, however, is an administrative output … Read more

README

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Civic Forensics Analyses This directory contains evidence-based analyses of public decisions, institutional conduct, official claims, administrative performance and public-interest risks. The primary focus is the European Union, its institutions, Member States and accession countries. Selected cases from other parts of the world are included where they reveal internationally relevant patterns of public administration, transparency, accountability, … Read more

When an AI Label Becomes Another Cookie Banner

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Executive summary From 2 August 2026, transparency obligations under Article 50 of the EU AI Act apply to providers and deployers of certain AI systems. The rules concern disclosure when people interact with AI systems, machine-readable marking of AI-generated or manipulated content, labelling of deepfakes and disclosure of certain AI-generated public-interest texts without human editorial … Read more

When an EU Agency Recovers an Entire Grant: What Must the File Show?

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Executive summary In case 387/2025/JN, the European Ombudsman examined CINEA’s decision to terminate a renewable-transport grant agreement and recover more than EUR 12.7 million, representing the full EU financial contribution paid to the project. The Ombudsman found that CINEA did not fully comply with the procedural requirements in the grant agreement. The agency did not … Read more