“Citizens have greater confidence in the EU institutions; the tendency to defend one’s own rights is growing; petitions to the Ombudsman are increasing, a sign that citizens’ appreciation for this institution of the Union is being consolidated”, says Nikiforos Diamandouros, European Ombudsman, who presented his annual report on his office’s activity as “civil defence counsel” in the EU in Strasbourg on 11 May. “In 2004 a 53% increase of petitions to this office was registered – explained Diamandouros -. A total of 3,726 complaints were made”. A large number of them were re-addressed to the competence institutions, while “in 343 cases we have opened our own inquiries, obtaining justice for citizens who had complained of discrimination on the basis of nationality, especially in EU competitions, unjustified delays in getting access to documents, and procedural errors committed by EU offices”. In these cases, “various injustices were corrected, obtaining the apologies of the authority involved. All this confirms that citizen are beginning to acquire a consciousness of their own rights and to demand that they be respected”. On the other hand, “I have to point out said the Ombudsman that the EU institutions do show a great deal of cooperation”. “All this favours a greater trust of citizens in the institutions of the Twenty-Five and brings them closer to the Union”. Most of the complaints to the Ombudsman come from Spain (13% of the total), followed by Germany, France and Poland. “We have received a very large number of petitions from the ten new member states. And this is a positive signal, to be interpreted as a sign of the close relations that the populations of these countries are forging with the EU”.
