The Council of Europe must publish the internal oversight report on the Epstein–Jagland case

Written declaration No. 844 | Doc. 16503 | 07 October 2026

Signatories:

Mr Paweł JABŁOŃSKI, Poland, ECPA ; Ms Patrícia ALMEIDA, Portugal, ECPA ; Ms Iwona ARENT, Poland, ECPA ; Ms Birgit BESSIN, Germany, ECPA ; Mr Bob De BRABANDERE, Belgium, ECPA ; Baroness Thérèse COFFEY, United Kingdom, ECPA ; Mr Ricardo DIAS PINTO, Portugal, ECPA ; Mr Vladimir ĐORĐEVIĆ, Serbia, ECPA ; Ms Cristina Gabriella DUMITRESCU, Romania, ECPA ; Ms Béatrice FRESKO-ROLFO, Monaco, ALDE ; Mr Oleksii GONCHARENKO, Ukraine, ECPA ; Mr Andries GRYFFROY, Belgium, ALDE ; Mr Szymon HOŁOWNIA, Poland, ALDE ; Ms Britt HUYBRECHTS, Belgium, ECPA ; Mr Aleksei JEVGRAFOV, Estonia, ALDE ; Ms Alicia KEARNS, United Kingdom, ECPA ; Ms Olena KHOMENKO, Ukraine, ECPA ; Ms Yevheniia KRAVCHUK, Ukraine, ALDE ; Ms Dumitrina MITREA, Romania, ECPA ; Mr Bernardo PESSANHA, Portugal, ECPA ; Mr José María SÁNCHEZ GARCÍA, Spain, ECPA ; Ms Alexandra SCHOOS, Luxembourg, ECPA ; Ms Victoria TIBLOM, Sweden, ECPA ; Mr Markus WIECHEL, Sweden, ECPA

This written declaration does not reflect the position of the Assembly; only of those members that have signed it. It will not be considered further by the Assembly.

We, the undersigned, declare the following:

On 29 September 2026, the Secretary General informed the Parliamentary Assembly that the Directorate of Internal Oversight (DIO) has concluded its report on whether failures or omissions occurred within the Organisation in connection with former Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland’s relations with Jeffrey Epstein, and that the report would remain confidential.

We deeply regret this decision and call for its reversal.

The Council of Europe promotes the right of access to official documents through the “Tromsø Convention” (CETS No. 205) and demands transparency and accountability from its member States. Its credibility depends on applying the same standards to itself.

The Assembly, which elected Mr Jagland under Article 36 of the Statute, and the European public have a legitimate interest in the report. The protection of witnesses, the presumption of innocence and the integrity of national criminal proceedings can be ensured by anonymising personal details where necessary, not by withholding the report as a whole.

We therefore demand that the report is made available to the public, with anonymisation limited to what is strictly necessary, and, pending publication, that it is transmitted in full to the Bureau of the Assembly and to the Committee of Ministers.