The background to the complaint

1. Since 2003, the European Commission has been responsible for the annual publishing of the Europa Diary. The Europa Diary is a school diary, which is intended as a tool for homework and other school-related notes for students in secondary school.

2. The 2010/2011 edition of this diary, while mentioning some holidays of other world religions, omitted Christian holidays, such as Christmas and Easter. According to the Commission, it was distributed in May and June 2010 to 21,029 secondary schools and reached more than 3.2 million students.

3. At the end of the year 2010, the Commission's attention was drawn to this omission, which was discussed in national and European media.

4. Being troubled by the omission of Christian holidays, the complainant, an Irish priest, turned to the European Ombudsman on 25 January 2011.

The subject matter of the inquiry

5. The Ombudsman considers that, in the present case, it was not necessary for the complainant to make individual administrative approaches to the Commission, given that the latter was clearly aware of the matter. The following allegation and the following claim were thus taken up for inquiry by the Ombudsman:

Allegation:

The Commission failed to include Christian holidays in its Europa Diary 2010/2011 edition.

Claim:

The Commission should (i) recall the already distributed Europa Diary 2010/2011 edition,(ii) apologise for the omission of Christian holidays, and (iii) reprint a 2010/2011 edition including Christian holidays.

The inquiry

6. On 14 February 2011, the Ombudsman informed the complainant that the Commission had meanwhile published a notice on the website of its Directorate-General for Health and Consumers ("DG SANCO"). Therein, the Commission apologised for what it called a regrettable error, clarified that there had never been an intention to discriminate against the Christian religion, and announced that the omission would be addressed by a Corrigendum. Moreover, the Commission promised that the Europa Diary 2011/2012 edition would include the main public holidays celebrated in each of the EU Member States.

7. In order to assess whether it was still necessary to ask the Commission for an opinion in this case, the Ombudsman invited the complainant to submit observations on the notice published by the Commission and the remedial action announced in it.

8. On 16 February 2011, the Commission sent a Corrigendum to all teachers who had ordered the Europa Diary 2010/2011 edition. The essential parts of the Corrigendum read as follows:

"(...) It has been drawn to the Commission’s attention that important religious holidays that are part of European heritage, such as Christmas, are missing in the current edition.

As you know, the diary covers the school year 2010/2011, not the calendar year 2011. It includes an agenda, which does not systematically list holidays, neither religious nor national ones. It lists, in footnotes, for each week an interesting fact that not all teenagers might know and these are meant to be adapted to the different national contexts. Among the facts mentioned are some celebrations related to less practiced religions in the European Union. However, the incoherence of omitting similar facts in relation to Christian celebrations, such as Christmas and Easter, the knowledge of which had been taken for granted, has caused offence.

The Commission very much regrets and apologises for this incoherence. The Commission would now like to rectify the situation, and asks your help.

For that purpose we have produced a one-page addendum to the diary, which sets out the main public holidays in your country. We have made this directly available for use with your pupils. It is attached to this letter and is also available on the Europa Diary website at the following address: www.europadiary.eu > Download

In response to concerns expressed, future editions will include the main public holidays in your country.(...)."

9. The Commission subsequently made each Member State's version of the Corrigendum available on DG SANCO's website and published a new notice, declaring that remedial action had been taken to rectify the omission of certain Christian holidays from the Europa Diary 2010/2011 edition.

10. The complainant did not provide any observations.

The Ombudsman's analysis and conclusions

A. Alleged failure to include Christian holidays in the Europa Diary 2010/2011 edition and the related claim

The Ombudsman's assessment

11. The Ombudsman notes that the Commission did indeed omit Christian holidays in the Europa Diary 2010/2011 edition, whereas holidays of other religions were included.

12. He notes, however, that the Commission has in the meantime acknowledged that this omission was an error, apologised for the error and sent a Corrigendum to remedy the omission.

13. It is true that the complainant claimed that the Commission should also recall the 2010/2011 edition of the Europa Diary and reprint a 2010/2011 edition including Christian holidays. It should be noted, however, that the relevant diary covers the school year 2010/2011, not the calendar year 2011. It would thus seem clear that this diary will only be used for a few more months by students. It should further be noted that, according to the Commission, this diary was distributed to several million students. In these circumstances, the Ombudsman is not convinced that the solution requested by the complainant would be proportionate. In addition to that, the remedial action taken by the Commission does not appear to be unreasonable.

14. In view of the above and the fact that the complainant did not submit any observations contesting the adequacy of the Commission’s remedial action, the Ombudsman concludes that there are no grounds for further inquiries into this case.

C. Conclusions

On the basis of his inquiry into this complaint, the Ombudsman closes it with the following conclusion:

There are no grounds for further inquiries.

The complainant and the Commission will be informed of this decision.

 

P. Nikiforos Diamandouros

Done in Strasbourg on 12 April 2011