Thank you Ms.Wikstrom for the invitation to address you here today and share my work with you.

Dear Chairs, within a few months Europeans will be able to exercise their most important right as citizens, and that is to vote for Members of this House.

Another important EU citizen right is the treaty right to complain to the Ombudsman in order to hold the EU administration accountable. The right to good administration is also a right under the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Yet while complaints about the European Commission, or about an EU agency for example, may imply administrative mistakes or poor practice, I recognise nonetheless that the EU administration is of a generally very high standard compared, not just globally, but also as compared to many Member States.

However, given the importance of the EU to millions of Europeans, my job is to work with you, with Parliament, to help the EU administration maintain the highest standards in everything it does. The ambition should be to be a global leader in this area of institutional life and especially at a time of political uncertainty and upheaval.

I wish to thank each of you for the strong support for the independent role of my Office since I was elected by parliament in 2013. We have, I believe an excellent relationship with several committees, and in particular with the Petitions Committee, led by Ms.Wikstrom, to which my Office is accountable.

I have also had the honour to address and receive strong support from the AFCO, LIBE and CONT committees, and several other committees, at various times over recent years.

We receive about 2,000 complaints a year from all over Europe, including from Members and from staff of the European Parliament. Nearly 60% of complaints are about the European Commission as would be expected given its important role for citizens. Each year, we open about 500 inquiries into issues from the straightforward, to more serious and systemic challenges. While we have the power to begin inquiries on our own initiative, over 95% of our inquiries are complaint-based.

The vast majority of inquiries conclude without a finding of maladministration. When I do find maladministration, I make recommendations to fix the issue and seek improvements for the future. However, if there is a serious problem and the EU institution in question does not wish to follow my recommendations, I can make a Special Report to parliament - a rare occurrence - but that is when I officially call on parliament to support my recommendations.

In 2013, I made a Special Report to parliament on the refusal of Frontex to set up a complaints mechanism based on work done under my predecessor. The LIBE and PETI committees drafted a report in response. Plenary supported the Ombudsman recommendations and the impact was immediate. The Commission in its proposal for a revised Frontex regulation included such a complaint mechanism, which was then agreed by the legislators. A similar proposal is now included in the reform of the European Asylum agency.

Last year, I sent the only other Special Report since 2013 to parliament following the failure of the Council of the EU to follow my recommendations to improve its accountability to citizens by improving how they handle documents and publish documents during the legislative process within Council working groups and COREPER.

As you know, EU citizens have a treaty right to participate in the democratic life of the Union and they can follow the EU legislative process in Parliament very easily.  However, the Council of the EU as an equal legislator is not as transparent and  this ‘black box’ in the Council allows a “blame Brussels” culture to flourish, where some national Ministers can blame the EU for decisions they themselves were part of, and often voted for behind closed doors in the Council.

I wish to thank you for the very strong vote of support in last month’s plenary for my Special Report on this issue, based on the AFCO and PETI committees joint report. This is a strong signal to the national governments ahead of the European elections on how we can improve our European democracy. I am in regular touch with several national parliaments on how we can keep the momentum up on this issue. We have also reached out to the Austrian and Romanian Presidencies, and I will in June visit Helsinki ahead of the Finnish Presidency.

On the related but separate issue of trilogues, I closed my inquiry into the lack of transparency in trilogues over two years ago. I was happy with the co-operation of the three main institutions and I wish to be clear that my aim was simply to assist the three institutions and by making practical suggestions in support of the legitimacy of trilogue negotiations. I fully recognise the need for a space to negotiate in confidence and all good transparency regimes recognise that such a space is in the public interest.

My suggestions I believe were both straightforward and practical, that trilogue dates and summary agendas be published; that the position of the Council be published before trilogues begin; and that the names of the decision-makers present in trilogue meetings be known. I also look forward to the ‘joint database’ between the three institutions, to make it easier for the public to follow the legislative process.

Another issue where I believe the parliament and Ombudsman have worked well together, in their separate and independent roles, concerns last year’s appointment of the Commission Secretary General. We received several complaints on that issue, including from Members of this House. We waited until the Budget Control committee finished its political work, and then we opened an inquiry into how the appointment was handled from an administrative perspective.

We inspected 1,000s of pages of Commission documents and saw exactly how the appointment was made and how all the answers to the parliament were drafted. In the end, we made a finding of maladministration on four specific points. While the Commission has declined thus far to respond positively, I was encouraged though by the strong vote of support in parliament for my recommendations in the Evi report voted in plenary before Christmas, and in the Bresso report just voted on today. I closed this inquiry yesterday.

As you may know, the parliament has the right of legislative initiative in certain cases including the Ombudsman’s statute. The parliament decided to revise the Ombudsman’s statute recently and I welcome Mr Rangel’s work in the AFCO committee. Just today, the vote in plenary gathered a large cross-party majority, to bring the statute into line with the Lisbon Treaty.

In relation to Brexit, which is a topic all of your committees are following, my only institutional interest has been that the negotiations be handled in as transparent a manner as possible. That is why I wrote to the Commission and Council in March 2017 to ask for an appropriate level of transparency given the issues at stake. I am glad to see that the EU side has displayed a high level of transparency in these negotiations, a factor which has helped the EU side remain united by making sure all stakeholders feel fully informed and included at every step. After this meeting today, I will meet with Michel Barnier, and will commend the high level of transparency on the EU side.

Colleagues, the only other Ombudsman related report passing through parliament, which I must mention is our budget. We have a relatively small budget of approximately ten million euro but with increasing demands on it including a 17% increase in complaints in 2018. While we have made several internal efficiency gains, we will be seeking a modest budget increase this year and I look forward to working with the Budget committee on that.

Before I finish, as you may know I co-ordinate the European Network of Ombudsman, which brings together over 90 national and regional Ombudsmen in Europe. I chair our annual conference every year and I warmly welcome you to this year’s conference in April, which will discuss the state of European democracy, and will be held in the parliament itself.

Finally, in order to recognise the good work done by many EU civil servants, I launched two years ago the Ombudsman Award for Good Administration. We recently closed the nominations for the 2019 awards, and have received many excellent entries from right across the EU administration. The awards ceremony will take place in June this year.

While much of my work involves highlighting where the EU administration needs to improve, these awards are an opportunity for my office to highlight good EU administration and the daily hard work of EU civil servants all over the world.

Thank you.