European Ombudsman Presents Annual Report

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

26 April 2006

Presenting his Annual Report for 2005 this week, the European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros revealed that he received 3,920 complaints from EU citizens, companies, NGOs and associations last year.

"The rate of complaints still stands at the record high level attained in 2004," Mr Diamandouros explained at the presentation of the Annual Report in Brussels.

One quarter of the inquiries carried out in 2005 concerned lack of transparency in the EU administration, including refusal of information.

According to the Ombudsman:

"The EU institutions have, over the years, done a lot to improve their services for the public but there is still a long way to go to create a fully open, transparent and accountable administration that is reassuring for the citizens".

Most of the inquiries in 2005 concerned the European Commission (68%), followed by the European Personnel Selection Office, the European Parliament and the Council.

Among the alleged types of maladministration were refusal of information, unfairness, abuse of power, discrimination, procedural errors or avoidable delays.

In 2005, the European Ombudsman dealt with a total of 627 inquiries. Following his intervention, the EU institutions settled bills, paid interest, released documents, remedied injustices and apologised for mistakes.

According to Mr Diamandouros, Spain produced the greatest number of complaints (20% of the total), followed by Germany (11%), France (10%) and Poland (9%). However, relative to their population, most complaints came from Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg.

Recommended