Speaking on 2 February 2000 to the body responsible for drafting a Charter of Fundamental Rights for the European Union, European Ombudsman Jacob Söderman called for the Charter to include a fundamental right to an open, accountable and service-minded administration which deals with the citizens' affairs properly, fairly and promptly. To put this principle into practice, it would be necessary for the Union institutions and bodies to be regulated by laws on good administrative behaviour and openness.
Söderman called for the Charter to be drafted and adopted in a form which enables citizens to appeal to the Community Courts if fundamental rights are infringed by a Union institution or body. Recalling that all the Union's Member States have accepted international supervision through the European Convention on Human Rights, which they played an active part in creating and developing over a long period, he also proposed that the institutions and bodies of the Union should accept the same supervision, through accession to the Convention.
The Ombudsman emphasised that rights are worth nothing without effective remedies, giving as an illustration the constitutional right of access to documents of the European Parliament, Council and Commission promised in the Amsterdam Treaty. Criticising the draft Regulation on access to documents published by the Commission last week, Söderman said "I am sorry to say that this document seems to consist mainly of a long and obscure list of possible reasons to deny access to documents. This cannot be what was intended when the Treaty of Amsterdam was drafted".
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