Dear colleagues, excellencies,

We live in a time of profound geopolitical disruption. We witness the relentless, ongoing war in Ukraine. We see more armed conflicts across the world than we have in decades — and scales of abuse that are astonishingly dark. We witness climate disasters. We face technological acceleration and rivalry over power whose consequences we cannot yet fully foresee.

And yet — we meet here, in Rome.

We meet in a city where hope was literally built into the urban and spiritual landscape. A city that holds deep meaning for Europe, for it was here, almost seventy years ago, that the Treaty of Rome was signed — a definitive break from Europe’s violent past, and a collective commitment to a future founded on prosperity, peace, and cooperation.

Rome is not merely a backdrop for this gathering. It is a reminder of what becomes possible when nations choose to build together rather than destroy.

Inspired by this extraordinary city — where I had the privilege of studying many years ago — I wish to speak today about hope, and about cooperation, in the context of ombudsmanship.

Ombudsmen can be many things: defenders of rights, guardians of good administration, confidential dispute resolvers, citizens’ advocates, systemic auditors. But above all — and perhaps most fundamentally — we are agents of hope.

What makes us so?

We serve as independent, impartial intermediaries between individuals and powerful institutions, offering a human pathway where people might otherwise find only walls. We investigate grievances, challenge maladministration, confront corruption, and address violations of rights. And we do so as a low-threshold alternative to formal courts — accessible to those who have nowhere else to turn.

In contexts of crisis or conflict, we offer something rarer still: a calm and persuasive voice of reason, upholding human rights, fostering dialogue, and encouraging accountability precisely when institutions and traditional mechanisms are under greatest pressure.

We stand alongside those who are most vulnerable — children, migrants, people with disabilities — those who might otherwise be lost in the labyrinth of complex bureaucracies. By restoring access to justice, we restore something deeper: faith that the system can work for them. Many who come to us are not seeking privilege or advantage. They seek recognition: acknowledgment that what happened to them matters, that their voice counts, and that they have not been forgotten by the institutions meant to serve them.

Sometimes hope begins not with victory, but with being heard seriously for the first time.

We are often the institution that listens when others no longer do. That listening is not symbolic. It is democratic infrastructure. When people feel heard, treated fairly, and able to challenge power without fear, trust in public institutions can survive even moments of profound frustration or crisis. In this way, ombudsmanship strengthens democratic resilience itself.

From that listening flows another essential role: restoring communication where it has broken down. We serve as bridges of understanding between institutions and citizens, helping transform grievances into dialogue and confrontation into resolution. Our role is to ensure that individuals are not lost beneath files, procedures, or statistics, while helping institutions remain connected to the human impact of their decisions.

And beyond individual cases, we identify patterns. We push for systemic change. We work to prevent future harm — not just remedy past wrong. Effective ombudsmanship is therefore not only reactive, but preventive. By addressing grievances early, fairly, and peacefully, we can prevent frustration from turning into alienation, distrust, or conflict.

Hope, in our work, is not abstract optimism. It is practical and measurable, and even more so at national levels: a child protected, a pension restored, a discriminatory policy revised, detention conditions improved, a public authority compelled to act lawfully and fairly, documents shared. Every systemic reform we achieve benefits not only the complainant before us, but countless others who may never suffer the same injustice again.

This is why ombudsmanship is, at its core, an act of hope anchored in trust: trust that fairness is still possible, that institutions can still listen, and that wrongs can still be put right. Our work exists to honour that trust and keep that hope alive.

Yet the work of an ombudsman can also be a lonely one. We are, by definition, the human face that citizens turn to in disputes with faceless bureaucracy. That very role — standing between the individual and the institution — can isolate us. Independence and impartiality are not merely administrative arrangements or abstract concepts; they are the conditions that allow us to speak uncomfortable truths and retain public trust.

And that is precisely why we must support one another, share experiences, and cooperate across institutions and borders. If ombudsmanship is an act of hope, then solidarity among ombudsmen is an act of collective resilience — ensuring that none of us stands alone when speaking truth to power.

Hope, after all, is stronger when it is shared.

This is where the European Network of Ombudsmen — ENO — becomes indispensable. More than a network, ENO is a community of ombudsmen united by a shared commitment: to upholding EU law and making citizens’ rights a living reality at every level of the Union.

It is a community I have the honour to coordinate, and one that — thirty years after its founding — has more than fulfilled its original ambition.

This year we celebrate that anniversary, and it is a story worth telling.

ENO has given its members tools that no other network provides: the ability to exchange good practices, to raise queries across borders, and — most distinctively — to conduct investigations in parallel.

In the case of these joint inquiries between the European Ombudsman and national or regional counterparts, they allow us to scrutinise the exercise of shared competences across EU and national administrations — in an institutional landscape where shared competences continue to expand — in a coordinated way. The result is a meaningful and accessible form of citizens’ protection — one that not only complements and helps relieve the burden on the EU’s judicial system but also helps build resilience by identifying and helping to correct possible gaps.

This is non-judicial protection at its best: agile, collaborative, and human.

Later this year I will be presenting ENO’s 30-year anniversary report to the President of the European Parliament, with important contributions from many national offices. I very much hope to be joined on that occasion in Strasbourg by members of the Network. It will be an opportunity not only to mark an anniversary, but also to give a visible form to the cooperation and shared purpose that underpins our work. I am deeply grateful for your contributions to the report — contributions that reflect exactly the spirit of cooperation I have described today, and the shared commitment that makes our work an act of collective resilience and hope.

But allow me to share, briefly, what this cooperation looks like in practice.

We have just launched a parallel inquiry into the EU’s alert system for unsafe food and feed, examining together how effectively it protects people across the Union. And very soon, at the initiative of the Slovenian Ombudsman, ENO will launch a horizontal parallel inquiry — this time on the administrative implementation of EU climate law.

These are not abstract exercises. They concern the everyday safety, health, and rights of the people we serve — and of future generations.

We are also discussing the implementation of the EU Migration and Asylum Pact. In that context, I am considering looking together with ENO members at how EU and national authorities ensure the effective participation of ombudsmen in border screening procedures, so that compliance with fundamental rights is not only required, but meaningfully assessed.

Cooperation also means dialogue. ENO provides a structured platform for engagement with the European Commission: on the interpretation of EU law, on rule of law reporting, and on the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This is a genuinely two-way relationship, and one that strengthens our work on all sides.

And ENO must also look ahead. We are currently finalising a Code of Good Practice for Ombudsman Institutions on the Use of Technological Systems, drafted by the Finnish, Estonian, and Czech offices. It is a practical response to the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence — both in the complaints we receive and in the way we ourselves work.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Dear colleagues,

Among ENO members, there are real differences in functions, powers, and mandates. Yet what unites us is something more fundamental: a shared responsibility to safeguard the integrity of public institutions within democratic systems built on constitutional checks and balances, individual rights, and the rule of law.

As accountability mechanisms, ombudsmen do not rely on legally binding decisions. Our deeper currency is moral authority — the authority to persuade, to shape public debate, and to strengthen public trust.

And whatever the institutional model, independence remains the foundation. The nomination procedure, the budget process, the freedom to act without undue pressure. These are not procedural details. They are what make moral authority possible.

ENO stands ready, within its mandate, to support any ombudsman office that may seek assistance and to do so with genuine commitment. Because at its heart, ENO is built around something profoundly hopeful: the protection of people’s rights, rooted in the belief that every person possesses inherent dignity, and that shared responsibility for our collective future is both possible and necessary.

And that is what gives me confidence. Not simply the structures we have created, but the people within them. Across this community, I see a shared willingness to step forward with clarity, courage, and care precisely when it matters most.

Hope, as this city reminds us, is not passive. It is built — stone by stone, case by case, reform by reform. Every time an ombudsman answers the complaint of someone who believed they had nowhere else to turn. Every time we work across borders to uphold accountability and protect rights. Every time we choose cooperation over isolation.

Let us continue to build that hope — together.

Thank you.