The Parliamentary Ombudsman, Judge Emeritus Joseph Zammit McKeon, met with the Director of the European Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), Ms Sirpa Rautio, to discuss the establishment of a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) in Malta.

For years, the Office of the Ombudsman has advocated for the establishment of an NHRI in Malta, emphasising that the Ombudsman could naturally extend its current remit to include a broader human rights mandate. This proposal, submitted to the Government in November last year, aligns with the practices of many European countries where ombudsman institutions also function as NHRIs. The Ombudsman Act 1995 already empowers the Office to investigate complaints regarding unfair, oppressive, or improperly discriminatory acts or omissions, of Government and the public administration, thus laying a solid foundation for such an expansion.

The Ombudsman updated the FRA Director on the two bills that were presented by the Government in Parliament in 2019, namely the Bill to establish the Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Equality Bill. The dissolution of the Thirteenth Legislature on February 20, 2022, resulted in the lapse of all pending legislative items, including the Equality Bill and the Human Rights and Equality Commission Bill. The subject matter of these two Bills has not been re-proposed.

Due to the lack of tangible progress on the agenda over the past two years, the Office of the Ombudsman has again proposed integrating the functions of an NHRI within its existing structure—a move both practical and necessary under the circumstances.

In January of this year, the Office of the Ombudsman applied for and was subsequently accepted as an associate member of the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI). Following a meeting with ENNHRI, the Office of the Ombudsman requested ENNHRI to review the Ombudsman Act 1995 and analyse the act in respect to the Paris Principles. The analysis by ENNHRI is currently being reviewed internally and will eventually be presented to the Government

Ms Rautio expressed the view that it is beneficial to utilise the mandate and structures that are already in place. Furthermore, it is not advisable to place human rights under the umbrella of an Equality Body.

There was also a discussion on the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and issues of jurisdiction, its awareness, and the issues arising out of Court jurisdictions.

Finally, the parties touched upon the monitoring of EU funds.  It was agreed that more training was needed in various aspects of NHRIs, in fact, an exploratory meeting is being planned to discuss the different structures and how to make them more efficient.

Ms Rautio was accompanied by the Director of the Office, Ms Susan Kennefick, and the Parliamentary Ombudsman was accompanied by Mr Paul Borg, Director General, and Dr Monica Borg Galea, Head of Investigations.

Link: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2024-07/cp240109en.pdf

Languages available: es de en fr it hu pl pt

PRESS RELEASE No 109/24

Luxembourg, 4 July 2024

Judgment of the Court in Case C-450/22 | Caixabank and Others (Review of Transparency in Collective Actions)

Mortgage loans: the transparency of ‘floor’ clauses may be reviewed in the context of a collective action concerning the entire banking system of a country

In its review, the court may take account of changes in the perception of the average consumer in relation to those clauses

‘Floor’ clauses are standard terms that were contained in variable-rate mortgage loan agreements concluded with consumers by a significant number of financial institutions in Spain. Those clauses set a threshold (or ‘floor’) below which the variable interest rate could not fall, even if the reference rate (generally the Euribor) fell below it. Several thousands of lawsuits were filed in Spain claiming the illegality of ‘floor’ clauses in the light of the Directive on unfair terms 1 2 .

The Spanish association of users of banks, savings banks and insurance (ADICAE) brought a collective action against 101 financial institutions operating in Spain. ADICAE aims at stopping the use by those institutions of the ‘floor’ clauses and at obtaining the reimbursement of the payments made under them. Following calls in the national media, 820 consumers supported the collective action.

(...)

The Ombudsperson has sent a Recommendation to the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing to amend the legislation to bring the level of protection afforded to road passengers on par with the higher level afforded to rail passengers.

The Recommendation now addressed to the Government is the result of an analysis of a complaint received alleging the unconstitutionality of the rules that exclude passengers holding a season ticket, pass or travel card from the right to reimbursement and compensation.

The Portuguese legislation currently in force on this matter, which was essentially driven by legislative initiatives of the European Union, although it recognises the right to compensation of passengers holding a season ticket, pass or travel card for road and rail transport, allows for its exclusion in some situations.

In order to ensure equal protection for road and rail transport users, the Ombudsperson, Maria Lúcia Amaral, recommends that the exclusion of the right to compensation in road transport should also be conditional on the existence of viable transport alternatives covered by the respective transport document.

To read the Recommendation in full, click here [in Portuguese only].

Introductory speech at the opening session of the High-Level Conference on the European Social Charter, organised in Vilnius, under the auspices of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Committee of Minister, as part of the follow-up to the 4th Summit of the Council of Europe

Ministers, Excellencies, Friends.

Many years ago, I was invited by a government to go to Iraq to train public officials in human rights. I was asked to talk about torture and freedom of expression. When I told the participants in the course about this, they were outraged, and they said: “We don't want to talk about that. We get that it is about human rights, but we want to talk about housing, jobs, access to health care.”

That was one of many such experiences I've had with rights holders. They appreciate that human rights are about civil and political rights, but that they are also about all the aspects of social justice. Or to put it in our jargon, people in our societies get the indivisibility, the co-equality, the co-dependence of all human rights.

We all accepted this once upon a time. Think of Roosevelt's four freedoms. Look again at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Go back to the negotiations to establish the Council of Europe, which emphasised that social justice is essential to democracy. But we have fallen a long way from that today.

My own darkest experience of the decline was a meeting with a minister in a country a few years ago. I went there to raise some human rights issues. I made points one, two, three. Then I said, I'd like to talk about poverty now, Minister. She immediately cut me off and said: “You are here to talk about human rights. That has nothing to do with poverty.”

It is clear from these experiences that we have a long way to go in reaffirming that social justice is about human rights.

Let me suggest three actions at the Council of Europe level and three at the national level.

First, at the level of the Council of Europe, we do need more ratifications of the revised Charter. And I have to say that it is highly problematic that we still have member states of the Council of Europe that have not even endorsed the original Charter.

Second, beyond ratification, states need to extend their commitments and accede to the Collective Complaints procedure and, with regard to the Collective Complaints procedure, I encourage states to follow Finland’s good practice of allowing national NGOs to submit complaints.

Third, it is essential to support the work of the European Committee of Social Rights, including providing it with the necessary resources to allow it to develop its enhanced dialogue procedure.

Turning to the national level, I would first encourage states to embed a rights-based approach to social policy, and to mainstream it throughout government, on the basis of the Charter.

Second, I'd like to encourage states to explicitly link actions for social progress with commitments to social rights. Why is it that when we do something like reform the police force, we very instinctively say that it is in the context of standing up for human rights? But when we are in the area of social policy, let's say a new policy on job creation, we rarely link that explicitly to human rights. That has to change.

Third, and finally, in the development of social policy and law, states need to engage their national human rights bodies, such as national human rights commissions to a much greater extent than is presently the case. The record on such consultation patterns is very patchy indeed, as we saw in the context of state responses to the COVID pandemic, when the human rights expertise was quite often left out of the room.

Chairperson, Ministers,

Let me close with a memory from last Saturday. I spent last Saturday on the outskirts of Thessaloniki in Greece, meeting with Roma communities. I had a conversation with Roma children and asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. One said a pilot, another said a mechanic, another said a beautician, and one boy said a lawyer. I don't know if these Roma children will achieve their dreams. I certainly hope they do. But what I do know is that if their social rights are not honoured, then it's highly unlikely. That is our responsibility.

Thank you.

El Defensor del Pueblo, Ángel Gabilondo, ha participado hoy, en su calidad de miembro del jurado, en la XX Edición de los Premios ABC Solidario y ha entregado a la Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras (FEDER) el galardón correspondiente a la ‘Entidad solidaria del año’.

El premio ha sido recogido por Isabel Montero, directora general de FEDER, organización que cuenta con 25 años de historia y reúne a 418 entidades de pacientes que representan más de 1.200 patologías que afectan a 3 millones de personas en España.

El objetivo de estos premios es reconocer la labor de entidades sociales y apoyar y promover proyectos orientados a mejorar las condiciones de vida de personas desfavorecidas o en riesgo de exclusión.

En esta edición también han resultado galardonados la Fundación Querer, por su plan multidisciplinar para atender las necesidades de salud mental de los menores con trastornos neurológicos; la Fundación Proclade, por su proyecto de cooperación en la frontera entre Haití y la República Dominicana, y la ONG Cooperación Internacional por el `Proyecto cocina social Vistalegre´. Además, la Universidad de Sevilla ha obtenido el premio en la categoría ‘Voluntariado universitario’ por el proyecto `Respiro Familiar´.

Junto a Ángel Gabilondo, han formado parte del jurado el director de La Linterna en la Cadena Cope, Ángel Expósito; el director general de Comunicación, Marketing Corporativo y Estudios en Banco Santander, Juan Manuel Cendoya; el director de la Fundación Santander, Borja Baselga; la secretaria general de Cáritas Española, Natalia Peiró; el rector de la Universidad Carlos III, Ángel Arias; la directora de cine Arantxa Echevarría, y el director de ABC, Julián Quirós.