Transparency and respect” “

All the European institutions have received complaints of various types: lack of information, lack of courtesy in public relations, slowness in payment, irregularities in hiring personnel. The positive side is that, thanks to the work of the Ombudsman, investigations have been opened that have in the majority of cases led to the problems being solved by the European institutions themselves. That’s what emerges from the annual report for 2003 presented by European Ombudsman NIKIFOROS DIAMANDOUROS to the Committee on petitions of the EP. WHO IS THE OMBUDSMAN?. The European Ombudsman has the task of receiving and examining the complaints about the European institutions made by any citizen of the Union, physical or juridical person who resides in a member state. The complaints in question are for the most part cases of poor administration in the action of the institutions and organs of the EU. Some of the more common problems treated by the Ombudsman are: injustices, discrimination, abuses of power, the failure or refusal to provide information, unjustified delays, and administrative irregularities. THE REPORT FOR 2003 IN SUMMARY. In the course of 2003, the Ombudsman received 2,436 complaints, an increase of 10% over 2002. On the basis of these complaints, the Ombudsman opened 248 investigations, as well as 5 investigations on his own initiative. Against whom? Most of the investigations conducted by the Ombudsman in 2003 (67%) concerned the European Commission; 39 investigations concerned the administration of the European Parliament (11% of total investigations), 26 the European Personnel Selection Office (7%) and 20 the administration of the European Council (6%). The complaints were about: the lack of or refusal to supply information (28%), injustices (15%), discrimination (12%), avoidable delays (10%), procedural errors (10%) and negligence (5%). In many cases problems were raised, or irregularities denounced, about bids for tender and contracts signed. The great majority of complaints (93%) were presented by individual citizens, and the rest (7%) by companies and associations. The country from which most complaints have been received is Germany (18% of the total), followed by France (13%) and Spain (12%). In relation to size of population, the largest proportion of complaints came from Luxembourg, followed by Finland, Belgium, Portugal and Greece. SOME CASES. Examples of complaints settled in 2003 are cited in the report. One interesting case is that of a Portuguese citizen who had requested the Council to gain access to his corrected examination paper. The citizen had participated in a public competition for EU administrators and had asked to see a copy of his corrected examination paper after having been informed that he would not be admitted to the oral examination. The Council initially refused access, but later changed its mind. Cases of delays in payment are also cited in the report. One such delay happened to the University of Stockholm as part of a research project. Thanks to the mediation of the Ombudsman, the university received from the Commission the final payment due, plus interest and apologies for the delay. There are also cases of “lack of courtesy”. The Ombudsman thus criticized the European Parliament for having failed to meet its obligation to show courtesy in relations with the public. The criticism concerned an e-mail sent in reply to questions posed about a bid for tender”. IRREGULARITIES IN HIRING PERSONNEL. Discrimination due to language, refusal to supply information, and technical difficulties due to the server: these are some of the irregularities most commonly registered by the Ombudsman in the sphere of public competitions and the hiring of staff by the European institutions. Following a complaint presented by the Universala Esperanto-Asocio (world Esperanto association), the European Commission adopted provisions to prevent the publication of job vacancies that were discriminatory on the basis of language. The Parliament, in turn, has agreed to publish the names of winners of public competitions for the hiring of personnel. This follows an investigation by the Ombudsman, begun on the basis of a complaint presented by a Finnish citizen who had failed to pass a competition for secretarial staff. The person lodging the complaint wanted to know how many male candidates there were among the best 32, but had been turned down. The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) has, following an investigation by the Ombudsman, accepted the candidacy of a Cypriot citizen for a competition. EPSO had initially refused the candidacy because it had not been presented correctly. The citizen argued that due to problems with the EPSO server, candidates has been unable to make their compulsory electronic registration within the deadline laid down. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1291 N.ro relativo : 31 Data pubblicazione : 29/04/04