Nikiforos DIAMANDOUROS, European Ombudsman, presents his Annual Report 2009, in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Brussels

meeting

GABRIEL, Mariya (EPP, BG, EC)

annual report of the European Ombudsman (T)

DIAMANDOUROS, Nikiforos (EL)

CASHMAN, Michael (S&D, UK)

Ombudsman 's Annual Report 2009: extracts from the presentation by Nikiforos DIAMANDOUROS, European Ombudsman

SOUNDBITE (English), Nikiforos DIAMANDOUROS, European Ombudsman, In 2009 I received 3.098 complains from citizens, companies, associations, NGOs, regional officers and others. This represents almost 10% fewer complains than in 2008.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nikiforos DIAMANDOUROS, European Ombudsman, The reduction in the total number of complains submitted to me reflects the fact that profiting from the Interactive guide more citizens are now finding the right address compared to the first time around, reducing the number of inadmissible complains has long been a request of Parliament and of this Committee to the Ombudsman.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nikiforos DIAMANDOUROS, European Ombudsman, In 2009 by far the most common allegation that I examined was lack of transparency in the EU administration. This allegation arose in 36% of all enquiries and included refusal of information of documents. Other types of alleged maladministration concern late payments for EU projects, unfairness, abuse of power, discrimination and procedural errors.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nikiforos DIAMANDOUROS, European Ombudsman, In 2009 my office closed 318 enquiries, most of the enquiries -that is 70% of the total- were completed within one year, over half 55% were completed within 3 months. On average, enquiries took 9 months to complete. Most of the enquiries concerned the European Commission, followed by the European Parliament, the European Personnel Selection Office and the Council.

SOUNDBITE (French), Mariya GABRIEL (EPP, BG), You talked about the quality of information and strengthening the network of European ombudsmen. We need to have a citizen's based approach and you said you cannot work alone so our Committee is here to say that we support that approach as well and the European Parliament also symbolises that kind of idea.

SOUNDBITE (English), Michael CASHMAN (S&amp;D, UK), It's interesting to note that 31% if all your requests deal with information and access to documents and of course as you rightly say there is overlap between most of the requests for your involvement in matters competition and selection procedures, etc...