Opening remarks

Let me begin by thanking Rapporteur Agius Saliba, the shadow rapporteurs, and the Petitions Committee for the early Christmas gift of their strong endorsement of our work in 2023. As this is my last time presenting my Office’s annual report, allow me to say that I am also immensely grateful for the consistent support over the years from both the committee and Parliament as a whole.

It has been a year of many changes with a new Parliament and a new Commission. The decisions you will take in the coming years will determine how the EU confronts an increasingly turbulent and uncertain global order,  a world overflowing  with challenges ranging from the economy and international trade to global security and potential climate catastrophe. The actions of the EU institutions will also define how our Union lives up to the  values that we talk so much about  transparency,  accountability, respect for the rule of law, and the protection of fundamental rights. Every decision taken must have the citizen, the public interest, front and centre because it is in the name of every EU citizen that you will make the policy and other choices here in this chamber and throughout the EU administration.

In 2023, my Office saw a slight rise in the number of complaints received and opened more inquiries than in 2022. Transparency and accountability accounted for the greatest proportion of cases, followed by a culture of service on the part of the institutions and recruitment issues.

In March, Parliament unanimously approved my special report on systemic delays in the European Commission’s handling of access to documents requests. This was my first special report since 2018 when I had also asked for your support on ensuring transparency in the Council’s legislative process. I took this rare step again because of the serious negative effect that long access delays can have on citizens’ ability to participate effectively in the decision-making process and hold the EU institutions to account. I thank you again for your overwhelming support and reiterate my call on the Commission urgently to deal with this issue.

In 2023, I also opened an own-initiative inquiry into how the Council, Parliament, and the Commission apply EU law and case law when it comes to public access requests for legislative documents. While Parliament received too few access requests within the scope of my inquiry to draw any meaningful conclusions, I found that the Council and the Commission applied the exceptions under the EU access to documents law too broadly. Their reasoning in many cases, including arguments concerning the protection of legal advice or that disclosure of documents would result in external pressure or public misinterpretation, have already been dismissed by the European Court of Justice in cases taken to it over the last number of years.

I asked both institutions to disclose legislative documents promptly from now on  and to refuse access  only in highly  exceptional circumstances. ‘External pressure’ in particular is not a reason to deny access as it is an obvious and normal part of the democratic law-making process.

I also criticised the Commission’s failure to ensure all its departments proactively publish details of all meetings with tobacco lobbyists as well as its failure to keep minutes of all meetings. I did however welcome the fact that the Commission intends  further to assess the exposure of its departments to lobbying by the tobacco industry. It has now begun this assessment and provided my Office with some preliminary information. We look forward to hearing about the Commission’s conclusions as well as what further measures it intends to take to deal with the risk of undue influence on EU decision making from the tobacco industry

Following the tragic drowning of over 600 people when the boat Adriana sunk off the coast of Greece in June 2023, I opened an inquiry into how Frontex fulfils its fundamental rights obligations in search and rescue operations. I made some suggestions to Frontex to address shortcomings around issues like guidelines for emergency signals and ensuring that fundamental rights monitors are sufficiently involved in decision making on maritime emergencies

I ultimately concluded however that current rules leave the agency too reliant on Member States to act when boats carrying people attempting to migrate or seek asylum are in distress. My inquiry revealed that, as the tragedy unfolded, Frontex made four separate offers to assist the Greek authorities by providing aerial surveillance of the Adriana, but that all these offers went unanswered.

In September 2023, I made a number of suggestions to ensure greater transparency and accountability around the €700 billion plus Recovery and Resilience Facility or RRF. These included asking the Commission to ensure that  all Member States set up easy-to-use public portals containing data on funding recipients and to encourage them to publish all national beneficiaries and not just the 100 receiving the highest amount of funding.

Given the unprecedented size and scope of the RRF, it is especially important that there is accessible information available about the loans and grants it supports. In particular, the public should be reassured that Member States are complying with the conditions attached to the funding they receive.

I could not end this address without also mentioning the fourth edition of our Award for Good Administration. I strongly believe that the role of an ombudsman should not only consist of pointing out what needs to be improved in public administration, but also emphasising what already works well. This Award provides a great opportunity to do just that by bringing much deserved attention to some of the wonderful work being done by public servants. The overall winner in 2023 was Eurojust and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for their work on guidelines to help civil society collect and preserve evidence of international crimes and human rights violations for future prosecutions. 

As you know, my mandate as European Ombudsman is drawing to a close. During my time in office, I have witnessed many positive developments in the EU administration. These include increased transparency around legislative decision making and EU trade policy, a strengthened Code of Conduct for Commissioners, the creation of a Frontex complaints mechanism for allegations of fundamental rights breaches, and greater awareness of the potential damage caused by revolving door moves. In addition, I am proud to be leaving behind an office with an 87% overall employee satisfaction rate and I would like to thank all my staff for their outstanding work throughout these years.

This week, you will elect my successor. There are six well-qualified candidates and I feel confident that whomever you choose will further ensure the EU institutions operate in a manner worthy of the public’s trust. I am also confident that you will provide them with the same vital support that you have provided me over these last 11 years.

Thank you.

Closing remarks

Thank you for all your kind words and observations.  As I have said many times before the support of Parliament for an Ombudsman’s work is both vital for, and intrinsic to, its capacity to be successful in its work. We both have the task of holding the executive to account and that implies a shared sense of values and shared concern for the citizens of the European Union whose lives are determined in so many ways by what happens in this chamber and in the offices and meeting places of the other institutions, agencies, offices and bodies.

Over the last eleven years, whenever I have asked for the support of this parliament, I have received it and it is what I have relied on when challenges arose and your institutional strength was needed to assist me in overcoming them. I again thank you for that.

Such success as I have had in those eleven years has also been built on my belief in belief itself. Institutions such as the European Parliament have massive power and even my small office – inspired by own strong belief in its capacity to make positive change within the European administration - has considerable power as well if we choose to internalise a deep awareness of that potential and how we can wield it.

This parliament is directly elected by the people, and that legitimacy confers upon you both great power and great responsibility.  Tomorrow you will elect my successor and I wish you well in that important task. Whoever is chosen will have the legitimacy conferred precisely because of their election by this institution and that too will be a source of great strength to them but will also confer great responsibility.

It has been an honour and an immense privilege to have served in this role. I will leave you with a few words of farewell in my native Irish language. They come from an old Irish blessing wishing a traveller well as they embark on a journey just as I wish you well as you continue on yours.

Go n-éirí an bóthar leat 
Go raibh an ghaoth go brách ag do chúl 
Go lonraí an ghrian go te ar d'aghaidh 
Go dtite an bháisteach go mín ar do pháirceanna 

Go raibh mile maith agaibh go leir, agus slan.