Strasbourg, 7 April 2006

Dear Mrs G.,

On 20 May 2005, you made a complaint to the European Ombudsman concerning the decision by the Council of the European Union to reject your request for a survivor's pension on the death of your ex-husband.

On 24 June 2005, I forwarded the complaint to the Secretary-General of the Council. The Council sent its opinion on 31 August 2005.

By letter of 21 September 2005, I asked the Council for a further opinion on your complaint, since it appeared from the Council's first opinion that it had misunderstood one of the remarks made in my letter opening an inquiry into your case. The deadline was set for 31 October 2005.

By e-mail of 11 October 2005, the Council requested an extension of the deadline for submitting its further opinion to 30 November 2005. By letter of 25 October 2005, I granted the requested extension.

On 25 November 2005, the Council submitted its further opinion. The two opinions were forwarded to you with an invitation for you to make observations by 31 January 2006.

By letter of 19 January 2006, your lawyer, Mr J.R. Iturriagagoitia, asked for an extension of the deadline for you to submit your observations to 30 April 2006, in order to allow him to complete your file and, in particular, to obtain certain certificates from the Belgian authorities.

Since it appeared that your lawyer was trying to obtain, from the Belgian authorities, new evidence which was not presented to the Council at the time of your request for a survivor's pension, I explained to you, by letter of 16 February 2006 which also was sent in copy to your lawyer, that, when determining whether the Council properly dealt with your request for a survivor's pension, I could only take into account the evidence that was presented to the Council at that time. New evidence could possibly be useful in making a new request to the Council, but would hardly be relevant in the context of the present inquiry. However, in order for your lawyer properly to acquaint himself with the file, an extension of the deadline for submitting your observations was granted to 31 March 2006.

By letter of 20 March 2006, your lawyer informed me that you had decided to withdraw your complaint and he therefore asked me to close the case.

Since you no longer wish for your complaint to be investigated, I have decided to close my inquiry.

The Secretary-General of the Council, and your lawyer, will also be informed of my decision.

Yours sincerely,

 

P. Nikiforos DIAMANDOUROS