Activities of the European Ombudsman: transparency still a key issue in 2014

Date of article: 29/01/2016

Daily News of: 29/01/2016

Country:  EUROPE

Author: Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament

Article language: en

Petitions committee MEPs stress the citizens' right to information, and endorse the European Ombudsman's efforts for greater transparency within the EU institutions, in lobbying and clinical trials, in a resolution voted on Thursday. They also state that access to documents is an essential part of the system of checks and balances.

"I would like to underline the role played by the Ombudsman on the access to the TTIP documents, the publication of clinical trials data and her contributions in the set-up of the transparency register to improve control over lobby groups around the EU institutions", said rapporteur Soledad Cabezón Ruiz (S&D, ES).

PETI Committees' resolution on the Ombudsman's annual report for 2014 was passed by 25 votes to 1, with 3 abstentions.

Focus on transparency

Members point out that over the years 20-30 % of complaints have concerned transparency, often about access to documents and/or information. Transparency-related issues also continue to top the Ombudsman's list of 342 opened inquires in 2014.

MEPs welcomes the Ombudsman's investigations, e.g. into the lack of transparency in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks, the protection of fundamental rights in the EU's cohesion policy and "revolving door cases", which regards concerns that senior EU-officials accepting private sector employments in their fields of expertise may result to a conflict of interest.

They also voted in favour for increasing the Ombudsman's office's annual budget.

More own-initiative action

The resolution supports that in 2014, the Ombudsman made greater use of her power to open strategic investigations on her own initiative and has appointed an Own-Initiative Co-ordinator.

In 2014, 23,072 citizens reached out to the Ombudsman's services for help. A clear majority were given advice through the website (19,170). Of all approaches, 1,823 were request for information and 2,079 were registered as complaints (compared to 2,240 in 2013).

The resolution notes that public access to documents of EU institutions triggered a large amount of heat from citizens (21 % in 2014). MEPs point out that it has been crucial that the Ombudsman put the focus on transparency as a guarantee of good administration, saying that access to documents is an essential part of the system of institutional checks and balances.

Next step

The resolution is scheduled for a plenary vote on 25 February.

Background

The European Ombudsman investigates complaints about maladministration in the institutions and bodies of the European Union. Emily O'Reilly (Ireland) was re-elected European Ombudsman by the Parliament at its plenary Strasbourg session on 16 December 2014.

Disclaimer: this is an informal message intended to help journalists covering the work of the European Parliament. It is neither an official press release nor a comprehensive record of proceedings.

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