European Ombudsman: handling complaints, ensuring transparency - Main contents
Do you have a complaint about one of the EU institutions? The European Ombudsman might be able to help you.
MEPs adopted a report on the European Ombudsman's activities in 2016 on 16 November, but do you know what the European Ombudsman does and how she could help you? Read on to find out.
What the European Ombudsman does
The European Ombudsman is responsible for investigating cases of alleged maladministration involving EU institutions and bodies. This varies from administrative irregularities to discrimination, power abuse, refusal or lack of information and unnecessary delays. The Ombudsman can act in response to a complaint by people or organisations or take the initiative to launch an investigation.
The Ombudsman is appointed for the duration of a parliamentary term, but this can be renewed. The current one is former Irish Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly who has been in the post since 2013.
MEPs have always been very supportive of the Ombudsman as they favour the highest degree of transparency for all European institutions and believe the Ombudsman has a vital role to play in this.
How to submit a complaint
Anyone living in the EU or any company or organisation in the EU has the right to submit a complaint. It is not necessary to be personally involved in the case you are complaining about.
The complaint has to be made within two years of becoming aware of the issue and only after having first contacted the EU instition in question about it.
The Ombudsman does not deal with any complaints against national, regional or local authorities. In addition the EU's Court of Justice falls outside the mandate.
Nearly 16,000 people helped in 2016
In 2016 15,797 people called on the Ombudsman's services for help. Most inquiries concerned a lack of transparency and public access to information and documents (29.6%), EU staff issues (28.2%) and the service culture (25.1%), which includes issues such as conflicts of interest and recruitment.
Most inquiries were about the European Commission (58.8%), followed by EU agencies (12.3%), the Parliament (6.5%) and the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) (5.7%).
The highest number of complaints came from Spain (308), followed by Poland (163) and Belgium (150). However, the most inquiries were opened for Belgium (50), which could be related to the fact that many EU bodies are based in the country.
To find out how many people submitted a complaint in your country, check out this page.
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Ref.: 20171110STO87809
Created: 15-11-2017 - 15:39
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