"The number of reports is still at record-breaking levels", in agreement with the past years. "Such a development should worry all those people who would like to improve relations between the citizens and the EU institutions". Nikiforos Diamandouros, European mediator (Ombudsman) since 2004, submitted in Brussels today the 2006 Yearly Report of its department, the role of which is to protect the citizens with the EU institutions. The long report contains for the first time a number of success-stories, "cases in which the institutions took care of correcting previous mistakes, for instance by quickly paying off any outstanding invoice plus interests on arrears", "by circulating documents", "by putting a stop to discrimination". "In 2006 reads the Report 380 reports were submitted to the Mediator. This is slightly less (2%) than 2005 but however it still proves the number of reports is still at the same record-breaking levels as in 2004". 57% of all reports submitted in 2006 was sent by email or through the form which is available on the website of the institution. In 3619 cases, the reports came from private citizens, 211 from associations or corporations. (continued)
