P. Nikiforos Diamandouros

The European Ombudsman

Editorial

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to my website! You may have noticed that the website has a new look! The Ombudsman launched a new visual identity on 27 September 2010. The launch coincided with the fifteenth anniversary of the institution. On that same day, the Ombudsman also presented his strategy for the 2009-2014 mandate, which outlines a set of objectives and priorities designed to ensure that EU citizens enjoy their rights fully, and to enhance the quality of EU administration. The strategy is available in the "Resources" section of this website.

The aim of the site is to give you clear, succinct, and easy-to-understand information on what the European Ombudsman can do for you. In addition, you can find out what the Ombudsman has achieved to date, and how to lodge a complaint. The website is regularly updated with press releases, details of upcoming events, publications, and case summaries.

The website also contains an interactive guide in all the 23 official EU languages. On any given day, dozens of citizens receive advice through the guide. It is there to help you quickly identify the most appropriate body to turn to, if you want to lodge a complaint. This service is proving particularly useful for citizens, businesses, and other organisations throughout Europe. As of 5 January 2011, the second anniversary of the interactive guide's launch, more than 45 000 persons had made use of this service.

Even if you do not wish to lodge a complaint, you may be interested in finding out more about the Ombudsman's work of holding the EU institutions, bodies, offices, and agencies to account. The "Cases" section on the website allows you to search through all the Ombudsman's decisions, draft recommendations, and special reports, as well as summaries of cases.

I hope the site will continue to prove a valuable resource for all those who follow the Ombudsman's work. Enjoy visiting it and please feel free to contact me with any feedback or suggestions that you wish to make.

All the best,

P. Nikiforos Diamandouros

The European Ombudsman investigates complaints about maladministration in the institutions and bodies of the European Union.

If you are a citizen of a Member State of the Union or reside in a Member State, you can make a complaint to the European Ombudsman. Businesses, associations or other bodies with a registered office in the Union may also complain to the Ombudsman.

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Closing summaries of cases

Access to adverse drug reaction reports (Added on: 14 May 2012)

Summary of decision on complaint 3106/2007/(TS)FOR against the European Medicines Agency

The complainant, who works for a Greek law firm, requested that the European Medicines Agency give him public access to certain documents, namely, suspected serious adverse reaction reports relating to Septrin, a pharmaceutical product. The Agency refused his request for access. It based its decision on the need to protect commercial interests.

After examining the arguments put forward by the complainant and the Agency, the Ombudsman made a draft recommendation to the Agency. He considered that the EU rules on public access to documents do apply to documents held by the Agency. He found that it was not evident that the requested reports contain commercially confidential information or other information which would damage any legitimate business interests of a third party. He noted, however, that the Agency added a new argument to the effect that personal data (such as the personal data of patients and reporting doctors) contained in the requested documents would need to be redacted.

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The Commission's failure to provide third-country students with correct and reliable information about its scholarship scheme (Added on: 09 May 2012)
The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market's language policy regarding its website and its correspondence with citizens (Added on: 30 April 2012)
All summaries...

Press releases

23 April 2012: Ombudsman event: European citizens can tweet their live questions to Barroso, Schulz, Thorning-Schmidt

On 24 April 2012, from 10.00 to 12.30, the European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros is organising an event in the European Parliament in Brussels, entitled "Europe in crisis: the challenge of winning citizens' trust".

The keynote speakers are José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, and Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Prime Minister of Denmark and President of the Council of the EU.

During the event, European citizens will be able to tweet questions to the speakers, by using the Twitter hashtag #EO2012. As many questions as possible will be displayed in the seminar room, giving the speakers an opportunity to address them.

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17 April 2012: Ombudsman investigates whether the Commission should do more to combat increased bee mortality
21 March 2012: The European Citizens' Initiative: the Ombudsman is ready to help, if problems arise
All press releases...