Closing the gap

“3,920 complaints were presented to the European Ombudsman in 2005: a 5% increase over 2004”. A large part of them “complain of the lack of transparency in the activity of EU institutions”. NIKIFOROS DIAMANDOUROS fills the role of Ombudsman, i.e. civil defence counsel of the EU. The Greek jurist – whose office is situated in Strasbourg – presented his Report for 2005 on Monday 24 April. It details the activities his office has performed “to defend citizens, businesses and associations from the actions of the institutions of the Union”. COMPLAINTS, RECORD LEVELS. “The number of complaints continues to be maintained at the record levels reached in 2004. The EU institutions – explains Diamandouros – have done a lot, in recent years, to improve the service they give to the public, but a lot still remains to be done to create a completely open, transparent and responsible administration” that is able to reassure citizens. On the other hand, “many people don’t know that I can conduct inquiries and intervene in cases of maladministration by the institutions or organs of the EU, whereas I cannot make complaints against the national or regional authorities of the member countries, even if they involve European law”, explains Diamandouros, who taught law for many years in American universities. So, “two thirds of the complaints we receive are inadmissible because they do not fall within my remit”. However, “in 75% of the cases we have been able to help the complainant by launching an inquiry, by forwarding the complaint to the competent authority or by providing advice on the proper offices to approach for a rapid solution of the problem”. 627 inquiries were completed last year; to these should be added a series of “external” activities, regarding relations with the other institutions of the 25, with national or regional ombudsmen, and visits to member states. Diamandouros has travelled the length and breath of Europe to drive home the message that a citizen can defend his own rights if he is aware “of these rights and the ways in which they can be defended”. SPAIN TOPS THE LEAGUE TABLE. “The complaints received by the Ombudsman in 2005 come in 5.5% of cases from companies, businesses or associations, whereas 94.5% of the complaints bear the signature of private citizens”. The role of the Ombudsman as the “champion” of the rights of the individual is growing, also in view of the fact that the EU defence counsel “is now in his tenth year of activity”. The analysis given in the annual Report ranges from the content of the complaints to their geographic provenance. Applying a ratio between number of complaints and national population, the countries that have most frequently had recourse to Diamandouros are Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Belgium, Slovenia and Spain. At the bottom of this league table are the UK, Estonia and Denmark. In absolute terms, on the other hand, it is Spain that heads the league table (775 complaints, 20% of the total), followed by Germany (11%), France (10%), and Poland (9%). “No less than 59% of all the complaints received in 2005 were presented electronically”, through e-mails or thanks to the website of the institution. “As in previous years, the bulk of our inquiries concerned the European Commission (68% of the total). Given that the Commission is the main institution that takes decisions with direct consequences on the lives of citizens, it is normal that it should be at the centre of the complaints”. 73 inquires were conducted on the European Office for the selection of personnel (EPSO), 58 involved the European Parliament, and 14 the European Council. BRINGING THE INSTITUTIONS CLOSER TO CITIZENS. “The main types of presumed maladministration” that landed on the desk of the Ombudsman in 2005 were: “lack of transparency and refusal to provide information (188 cases); injustice or abuse of power (132); discrimination (103); procedural irregularities (78); preventable delays (73)”. The Ombudsman also received 3,269 individual requests for information by electronic mail, in comparison with 3,200 in 2004 and 2,000 in 2003. Nor are more general considerations on the current phase that the European Union is going through lacking in the report drawn up by Diamandouros. “These are testing times for the European States. Citizens in France ad the Netherlands voted not to ratify the Constitution for Europe, voter turnout at European elections continues to decline, and the Union is struggling to address the perception that it is a remote bureaucracy built by a political elite”. “The European Ombudsman – Diamandouros continues – was established to help bring the Union closer to citizens and to give to the EU administration ‘a human face’. A fundamental aspect of the institution is that the Ombudsman is a physical person, who communicates personally with individual citizens writing to him, reviews their cases, and seeks to have their complaints resolved. Each one of these ‘micro-communications’ helps to humanise the EU administration and to bring it closer to citizens”.