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Decision of the European Ombudsman closing his own-initiative inquiry OI/2/2012/VL towards the European Commission
Lēmums
Lieta OI/2/2012/VL - Uzsākta {0} Pirmdiena | 12 marts 2012 - Lēmums par {0} Otrdiena | 18 decembris 2012 - Iesaistītā iestāde Eiropas Komisija ( Nav pamatojuma turpmakai izmeklešanai )
The background to the complaint
1. In 2002, the Commission issued the 'Commission communication to the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman on relations with the complainant in respect of infringements of Community law'[1] (the '2002 Communication'). The 2002 Communication set out the procedural guarantees to which the Commission committed itself when investigating complaints about infringements of Union law concerning such issues as registration of complaints, acknowledging their receipt and deadlines for investigating complaints. The 2002 Communication was published in all the official languages of the EU at the time, that is, in 11 languages.[2]
2. On 1 May 2004, ten new Member States joined the Union and nine further languages became official languages of the EU.[3]
3. On 1 January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined the Union, which added two further languages to the official languages of the EU.[4]
4. Also in 2007, Irish became an official language of the Union. The number of official languages of the Union thus went from eleven in 2002 to twenty-three in total.
5. It came to the Ombudsman's attention that the Commission appeared not to have made available any translations of the 2002 Communication into the languages that had become official languages of the Union since 2002. The Ombudsman strongly believes that, if Union citizens are to reap the benefits of their EU citizenship fully, they need to be informed about their rights and how to assert them. Therefore, he decided to open the present own-initiative inquiry to clarify the situation.
The subject matter of the inquiry
6. In his opening letter, the Ombudsman asked the Commission to explain:
(i) why the 2002 Communication that the Commission adopted and published in 2002 has not been made available in all Union languages, and
(ii) when the missing language versions will be made available.
7. The Ombudsman also noted that the 2002 Communication needed revision, which was already the subject of the on-going inquiry OI/2/2011/OV.[5] However, in the absence of a concrete date for the adoption and publication of a revised text, the Ombudsman considered that it would not be in the interest of the affected Union citizens further to delay providing them with a translation of the 2002 Communication into their respective languages.
The inquiry
8. On 12 March 2012, the Ombudsman opened the present inquiry at his own initiative.
9. On 17 July 2012, the Commission provided its opinion.
The Ombudsman's analysis and conclusions
Arguments presented to the Ombudsman
10. In its opinion, the Commission pointed out that, in 1999, it published information on how to submit a complaint on infringements of EU law by using a complaint form. This information could be found in an explanatory note on the back of the complaint form.[6] The Commission underlined that it sent this complaint form and the explanatory note to those complainants who used the languages of countries that joined the Union in or after 2004. To this end, the Commission also published information on a website so that each citizen could acquaint himself or herself with the Commission's guarantees as to how infringement complaints will be handled.[7] Thus, every citizen could inform himself or herself, in any official language, about the handling of infringement complaints.
11. In this context, the Commission stated that the document at issue, which was adopted in 2002 and revised in 2012,[8] was a purely internal measure. In its view, its contents merely constituted guidelines for the Commission's services that needed to be followed in the process of handling an infringement complaint for the benefit of the complainant.
12. The absence of translations of the 2002 Communication was due to the fact that every complainant had the necessary information available in his or her language based on the above-mentioned sources. The Commission added that it had nevertheless decided to make the updated Communication available on the Eur-Lex portal in all the official languages of the EU.[9]
The Ombudsman's assessment
13. The Ombudsman considers it useful to recall that the 2002 Communication was addressed to the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman. More importantly, this Communication was the Commission's response to the findings at which the Ombudsman had arrived when investigating the Commission's handling of infringement complaints, as, for example he did in his inquiry 995/98/OV.[10]
14. Therefore, the Ombudsman finds it difficult to understand that the Commission now seems to consider the 2002 Communication as being a "purely internal measure".
15. In the Ombudsman's view, the 2002 Communication in fact had a much more profound role to play than that of a mere internal "guideline". This is confirmed by (i) its form and substance, that is, its nature as a communication to the Ombudsman and Parliament on the procedural guarantees given to citizens who submit an infringement complaint to the Commission, and (ii) its purpose, which is to serve as a yardstick for the Ombudsman and Parliament to assess how the Commission respected the procedural rights of Union citizens in discharging its duties as the 'guardian' of the Treaties'.
16. Whilst it is commendable that the Commission has translated the explanatory note concerning its complaint form into the official languages of the EU and has created a dedicated website with pertinent information, the Ombudsman considers that the Commission nevertheless did not provide any convincing reason as to why it did not translate the 2002 Communication as such. Even though the relevant explanatory note and the website offered some of the information that is contained in the 2002 Communication, they clearly did not include information on all the procedural safeguards for the benefit of Union citizens to which the Commission had committed itself.
17. The Ombudsman notes, however, that the Commission has, in the meantime, published an updated version of the 2002 Communication in all the official languages of the Union. Thus, all Union citizens can now make themselves familiar with the procedural safeguards to which the Commission has committed itself in this Communication.
18. In view of the above, the Ombudsman considers that there are therefore no grounds for further inquiries into the present case. This conclusion is without prejudice to the substantive assessment of the updated 2002 Communication, which will be carried out in the framework of the investigation in case OI/2/2011/OV.
19. When the Ombudsman identifies opportunities to improve the level of administration for the future, he may address a further remark to the institution concerned. In the Ombudsman's view, the present case raises an important issue of principle, namely that citizens need to be able to make themselves familiar with their right to good administration[11] and with the specific expression that this right has found in various communications and codes of the European institutions, offices, bodies and agencies. It is obvious that the relevant information should be available to EU citizens in all official EU languages. In this respect, the Ombudsman considers that it would be useful if the Commission could examine whether there are any other communications or similar publications concerning citizens' rights that have not yet been translated into all the official languages of the Union.
C. Conclusions
On the basis of his inquiry into this complaint, the Ombudsman closes it with the following conclusion:
No further inquiries are justified into the present case.
The complainant and the Commission will be informed of this decision.
Further remark
It would be useful if the Commission could examine whether there are any other communications or similar publications concerning citizens' rights that have not yet been translated into all the official languages of the Union.
P. Nikiforos Diamandouros
Done in Strasbourg on 18 December 2012
[1] OJ 2002 C 166, p.3.
[2] These languages were Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.
[3] Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Slovak, and Slovenian.
[4] Bulgarian and Romanian.
[5] The opening letter to that inquiry at the Ombudsman's own-initiative can be found at: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/cases/correspondence.faces/en/10367/html.bookmark
[6] OJ 1999 C 119, p. 5.
[7] http://ec.europa.eu/eu_law/your_rights/your_rights_en.htm
[8] COM(2012)154 final.
[9] The new Communication is now available in all official languages under the following link:
[10] See to that effect the fifth recital of the 2002 Communication.
[11] This right is enshrined in Article 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.