Mr President, distinguished Members of the Committee!

I would first like to express my gratitude to you, Mr President for inviting me to present to you the European Ombudsman's Annual Report for 2001. The Report was formally presented to the President of the European Parliament on 5 April 2002.

Because I am presenting the report to the Committee earlier than planned, we only managed to distribute it today in all the languages to all the Members. I regret this, as it might limit the possibility to debate the issue. We provided the draftsman with the Report in English at an earlier stage, so that he could study and assess it fully before this meeting.

Before we can present a report to you, many different people must do a lot of work. The cases are investigated and decided upon and summaries of the cases and findings are drafted for the Annual Report. All the necessary information on other activities is added, statistics are established and the reports are edited. Then a huge volume of translation work is carried out under the auspices of the Parliament's translation service. Following that, our legal officers check the translations and the Report is compiled and printed as a working document. Before it goes to a plenary session of the Parliament, a final printed version will be produced.

I would like to express my thanks to all the parties involved in this process. Due to your good work, the report is now ready as a working document. One contribution should receive a special mention. We would have great difficulties in communicating if competent interpreters and translators did not assist us. This is essential work that we often take for granted. Many translators have done a good job on this Report, but I would like to pay a particular tribute to the translator responsible for French, M. Joseph AMIEL who is present here today at our invitation. He has not only translated our texts into excellent French that has been widely praised, but has also made a number of valuable proposals to make the report more informative and readable. I wish to thank him for his excellent performance during the years and, through him, all his dedicated colleagues.

Mr President

In the foreword to this Report, I focus on the progress made in two important fields; firstly on the new regulation on access to documents which was adopted and entered into force during the year 2001; and secondly, the Parliament's decision to adopt the European Code on Good Administrative Behaviour in September 2001.

On openness, no real changes have been noted in the attitude of the Community institutions. Their own rules of procedure appear to have a tendency to close rather than to open their activities for the surrounding world and its citizens. There are some indications that especially the Commission, but also the Parliament, intend to use the recently adopted data protection rules to impose more confidentiality on their activities rather than concentrating on the protection of the citizens' right to keep their family and private life out of the public domain. I fully agree with the phrase in the recent PACIOTTI report(1) in which the Committee on Civil Liberties recalls that data protection rules are primarily concerned with the protection of private and family life, in accordance with the case law on the relationship between Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Council of Europe's Data Protection Convention, and emphasises that it is not the purpose of data protection to restrict the information available to citizens about public activities.

Concerning the Code of Good Administrative Behaviour, a positive development for the citizens has taken place. We printed the Code in all the official languages and the booklets are available here today. We sent it to all institutions and bodies on 11 March 2002 and indicated told them that we have been instructed by the European Parliament to apply it in our work and that by following it one can truly avoid maladministration. I can assure you that the Code has raised huge interest in many circles in Europe. It was published on our website on 18 March 2002 and, the following week the relevant pages were visited 1864 times. We have had to reprint the brochure to meet all the requests for extra copies. We also informed the institutions and bodies that we will, as suggested in the Boesch report, start to follow up on the critical remarks that we make from the beginning of this year.

I do hope that the European Parliament takes steps to achieve the ultimate goal, which is a modern EU law on good administration based on the existing Code. It seems that this Committee has the possibility to consider such a step.

I cannot understand that the Member States represented in the Council would oppose their nationals having the same kind of legal rights in relation to the EU administration as they already have in relation to their national administration. It is difficult for me to understand why the Commission, which has demonstrated its own commitment to follow the principles of good administrative behaviour, is reluctant to propose such a law.

In my foreword, I also deal with the implementation of the Nice Charter of Fundamental Rights. I am sorry to say that, despite the positive public statements by the President of the Commission Mr PRODI, the responsible Commissioner Mr VITORINO and the then President of this Parliament Mme FONTAINE on the importance for the administration to apply the Code in their daily activities, the interest in the administration itself is at most lukewarm, whether it concerns prohibition of discrimination on the basis of age in the recruitment procedure, sex or race. The same goes for promoting the fundamental right of freedom of expression and the right to parental leave for their own staff.

High officials tell me that the Charter is only a political declaration. I understand from such statements that citizens should not expect political promises to be kept. To me this seems like a way to undermine democracy.

I would like to stress that European citizens have the right to expect the Charter to be followed by those institutions whose presidents solemnly proclaimed it in Nice in December 2000, that is the Council, the Parliament and the Commission. If these institutions do not deliver, the Charter will be a further step on the road of mistrust between the EU and its citizens. I do hope that I can count on you all as partners in this struggle, which I am convinced we will win in the end for the benefit of the citizens.

Mr President

In my foreword, I also deal with the question of how to make the right to complain more known to all citizens who should be aware of this remedy. During 2001 and again during the first three months of this year the number of complaints has risen steadily. From the beginning of January to the end of March 2002, we received 18.5% more complaints compared to the same period in 2001. There is much to be done and we are open to all suggestions that would help us promote the knowledge of citizens' rights. I would also like to repeat that if Members of this Parliament and their assistants are ready to do even more to inform the citizens of these rights, that would be very helpful. After all, you are the actors on the ground, in contact with citizens from all corners of Europe throughout the year. To help you, we have provided your assistants with material and are ready to provide more.

In his report on the Annual Report for 2000, Mr BOESCH rightly reminded us of the need to deal promptly with complaints. I am glad to announce that, during this year, we have been able to meet his request and, at the end of 2001, had only 22 cases open for over one year compared with 35 at the end of 2000. I do not mention here complaints on the basis of which a proposal for a friendly solution, draft recommendation or special report has been presented.

At the end of March this year, only 7 cases were open for more than one year and I do hope that already by the end of June we should have no more cases open for more than one year without due reason, namely that they involve further actions such as a proposal for a friendly solution, draft recommendation or special report. I do have to admit that this puts our staff under pressure as the number of complaints is increasing all the time but I know that they are committed to achieve this goal. Cases open for more than one year when no further action is necessary should be avoided.

Lastly I would like to submit some thoughts for your consideration on the subject of closer co-operation between the European Ombudsman's office and your Committee and its secretariat. As you may remember, this issue was dealt with by the resolution proposed in the BOESCH report, which was adopted by the Parliament last September.

First of all: petitions that deal with political questions such as proposing new laws, or criticising existing ones, or requesting changes in the policies of the EU should at all time and all stages be dealt with solely by the Committee and its secretariat. The decision on admissibility of such petitions should also be within their remit.

For all other petitions, we could introduce a procedure whereby the preliminary decision on admissibility, including a prompt answer as to where the citizen can look for remedy if it falls outside the mandate, could be taken by the Ombudsman's office and the Committee secretariat jointly. This would include a draft answer to the citizen, with advice as to the competent body. This phase would also include a possible investigation into the matter that would include obtaining information and opinions from the institutions in question and drafting a proposal for the Committee's response to the citizen.

All final decisions, on admissibility as well as on closing decisions, should be presented to the Committee so that the Members would have the possibility to ask for information or to make alternative proposals.

Our information policy, networking with similar bodies in the Member States, giving lectures and using the internet as a tool for providing up-to-date information could all be done as a joint operation guided by principles set up together.

If this proposal for co-operation is acceptable to you, Mr President, and to the members, it will require a change to the Rules of the Parliament and to the Statute of the Ombudsman to transform it into a statute for dealing with petitions to the European Parliament and complaints to the European Ombudsman. It will also have some budgetary and administrative implications.

The best way forward should be, if it seems acceptable to you, that we use our traditional meeting with you, Mr President and the co-ordinators, for further discussion on the subject. If some guidelines could be agreed, we could set up an informal working group to draft a paper, including an action plan to develop more detailed proposals for further discussion. When we have something concrete and feasible, we should of course duly inform the President and Secretary General of the Parliament. It would still be possible to have a new form of co-operation ready so that the new Parliament can initiate it when it starts its activities in the autumn of 2004.

The motion for a resolution on the Annual Report 2001 could mention the desirability of co-operation, as it already has been presented in the Resolution proposed in the BOESCH report, including in the handling of petitions.

As an observer at the Convention on the Future of Europe, I have the right to elaborate on the future of our citizens' right to petition or complain. I am ready to make a statement and distribute documents to the Convention that would promote the deepening of European citizenship in these areas. At the very least, it would have a positive impact on the improvement of the constitutional rights of European citizens: the right to petition the European Parliament and the right to complain to the European Ombudsman.

Thank you all for your attention.

---

(1) Report on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on the regulations and general conditions for the performance of the duties of the European data protection supervisor COM(2001) 411 - C5-0384/2001 - 2001/2150(ACI)