Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-12-Speech-4-010"
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"en.20091112.5.4-010"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, on 21 April 2009, the European Ombudsman submitted his annual report on his activities in 2008 to the outgoing President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering. On 14 September of the same year, Mr Nikiforos Diamandouros presented the contents of that same report to the Committee on Petitions, which had already commissioned me to draft a report, which was approved unanimously by the members of the Committee on Petitions on 1 October 2009.
The written report consists of two documents: a brief, six-page overview and an extensive version which goes into the Ombudsman’s activities, the statistics and the interpretation of them in greater detail, in the aim of improving procedure and best practice.
The data and the findings – in both documents – are presented in a user-friendly way using some illustrative examples which help the reader to understand, evaluate and make use of the text.
Compared with previous reports, this new presentation of the statistical data and the evaluation of the findings has made the report more comprehensible and, above all, more useful, because it goes beyond the limits of a mere record, addressing policy issues and methods of improvement.
An unprecedented number of inquiries was completed in 2008. Most of these cases concerned the European Commission and far fewer concerned the administration of the European Parliament. The most common type of maladministration was lack of transparency. One third of cases were settled amicably to the satisfaction of the complainant. There were fewer instances in which the Ombudsman was forced to make critical remarks to the administrative institutions involved. There were even fewer in which a detailed opinion was requested, while in one case, a special report was submitted to Parliament, resulting in a special resolution in favour of the complainant. In 2008, the Ombudsman completed an own-initiative inquiry into late payments by the Commission, as a result of which measures were taken to limit late payments and a new investigation was announced. The Ombudsman’s basic priority was to ensure that citizens’ rights are respected in the aim of strengthening the confidence of European citizens in its institutions.
This aim was served by his choosing to improve the quality of information provided to citizens concerning their rights via the European Network of Ombudsmen. At the same time, with the usual practices for resolving issues imposed by his institutional role, the Ombudsman strengthened contacts with the members and officials of the European institutions, thereby promoting a culture of service within the administrative services of the Union, which certainly contributes towards the general objective of mutual respect between European citizens and the European institutions. One tangible result of this campaign was the increase in 2008 in the number of petitions, which is an indication of the fact that a larger number of European citizens had been informed of, and decided to make use of, the institution of the Ombudsman in order to complain about issues relating to the sound administration and operation of the administrative and other services of the European Union.
The Ombudsman’s website was updated regularly throughout 2008 in order to transform it into a modern, dynamic and interactive service. To close the first phase of this oral report on the European Ombudsman’s annual report, we expect constructive activity with the European Parliament to continue in the same way, for the activity of this institution to be promoted as a model of sound administration to the national administrative authorities and for this institution to continue to act as a communication channel between the European institutions and the citizens of Europe."@en1
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