On the side of citizens” “

He is the “guardian of good administration” at the EU level; he is on the side of citizens who are increasingly petitioning his office to have their own rights defended against the institutions of the Twenty-Five. The office of the European Ombudsman, who performs a valuable but hidden role, has been put under the spotlight in recent days for two reasons: first, because he has received a public accolade from the Petitions commission of the European Parliament for the positive work he has performed; second, because a brochure entitled “The European Ombudsman: can he help you?” has been officially published in 21 languages; it’s a guide to the defence of rights, aimed at the 450 million citizens of the EU. THE TRUST OF CITIZENS GROWING. The commission for Petitions often works in tandem with the Ombudsman. Once each year it evaluates the report on the Ombudsman’s performance, to ascertain his effectiveness, the procedures followed, and possible developments to improve relations between EU institutions and citizens. “MEPs congratulate the work performed by the Ombudsman – declares the Resolution presented by Irish MEP Proinsias De Rossa -. They consider the role of the Ombudsman as an essential contribution” towards an EU in which decisions “are taken in the greatest possible respect of the principle of openness and as close as possible to citizens”. The commission also praises the Ombudsman for the setting up of a network of “defenders” at the national and local level and considered positive the fact that an ever growing number of citizens, groups and commercial companies are turning to the Ombudsman: between 2002 and 2003 a growth of 10% in petitions has been registered, rising to almost 2,500 in 12 months, a figure higher than predicted for 2004. KNOWING ONE’S OWN RIGHTS TO BE ABLE TO SAFEGUARD THEM. The office of Ombudsman was established by the Treaty of Maastricht; it is based in Strasbourg and employs a staff of just over thirty. The post, initially assumed by the Finn Jacob Soderman, is currently held by the Greek jurist Nikiforos Diamandouros, who tours Europe with a precise message: “We need to better inform the citizens of the Union of their rights and the facilities at their disposal to be able to enjoy them fully”. Diamandouros – 62 years old, married, two children, a US university degree and a record as the first national civic defender in Greece – divides his time between various functions: first, he analyses the complaints received and takes appropriate action with the institutions complained of; second, he works to maintain relations with a network of 90 decentralized offices distributed in 30 different countries (members of the EU, candidate countries, plus Norway and Iceland). The most frequent cases of complaint are problems of access to EU documents, lack of transparency in public competitions for the selection of EU personnel, and late or lack of replies to requests by citizens. FIRM REJECTION OF ABUSE OR DISCRIMINATION. Presenting a petition to the European Ombudsman is very simple: it can take the form of a letter or an e-mail. Once the complaint has been received, the office will undertake an internal investigation that may lead to direct action being taken against the defaulting institution, to an amicable settlement that provides in any case a satisfactory response to the citizen, or to dismissal of the complaint if it found to be groundless. Among the complaints received in 2003 (the year to which the last report of the Ombudsman refers), the institution most frequently complained of was the European Commission (67% of cases), followed by Parliament (10%) and Council (7%). In the majority of cases, the complains concern problems of “transparency” or the lack of it by EU institutions (28% of complaints), followed by forms of discrimination, and judicial or procedural errors. In half of all episodes no violation of rights was ascertained; in other cases, the Ombudsman proceeded and obtained the satisfaction of the requests. The denunciations, 93% of which come from individual citizens, the rest from associations or companies, originate for the most part from Germany (432 in 2003), France (320), Spain (284), Italy (196), but also from smaller countries such as Ireland (33) and Denmark (31). In terms of population, the people most “reactive” to violations or abuses of their own rights are the Irish, the Luxemburghers, the Belgians and the Portuguese.