European year of citizens 2013 Interactive
event on 23 April 2013, organised by the European Ombudsman
Help solve the economic crisis:
The experience of the Mediator of Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation,
Marc Bertrand

Mr European Ombudsman,
Mr President of the European Parliament,
Madam Vice-President of the European Commission,
Mr Vice-President of the European Commission,
ladies and gentlemen here in your capacity,
ladies and
gentlemen,

As the invitation to this event reminds us, we are gathered here in the European Parliament in Brussels, but in communication with all those who will follow our debates and intervene in our discussions through the technological means of communication, to focus on European citizens and their opportunity to make a concrete contribution to shaping the European Union, whether by using the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), by addressing the European Ombudsman or by mobilising a large group of citizens to carry out local initiatives.

I was asked to take part in this first panel entitled ‘Contributing to solving the economic crisis’, and more specifically to share with you my experience as a parliamentary or institutional Ombudsman here in Belgium.

 ‘The safeguarding and promotion of human rights is a real task for Sisyphus, which has been constantly renewed and never completed. If one can sometimes give in to the illusion that great progress has been made, time, this demolisher of myths, very quickly reminds us of reality. And we have to start again...

This observation, made in 1996 in Strasbourg by the President of the Governmental Committee of the European Social Charter, Mrs Maria-Josefina LEITAO, is unfortunately still true today.

The Decree (the law of the federated entities in Belgium) which created the Office of the Ombudsman of Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation did not give the Ombudsman of those entities the primary task of protecting the individual rights and civil liberties of citizens. This may be a sign that in my country these rights and freedoms are less violated than in other countries...

Our role is to monitor the action of the administration in its relations with citizens, to monitor maladministration and malfunctioning of the administration.

That is to say, my action focuses on the daily difficulties of citizens in the face of public services whose requirements are considered by the former to be binding, particularly in our current disrupted world.

As the French Defender of Rights, Mr. Baudis, recently described in an interview, "All claims are processed but this does not mean that all requests are met.

Some people sometimes feel that they are the victims of a malfunction or error and this is not the case.

In any case, our mission is to provide access to rights for those who fail to make them heard, and to rehumanize relations between citizens and public authorities. Both by dealing with the complaints of those who come to us and by making proposals for reform to Parliament or the government, after observing ourselves malfunctions or discriminatory practices. »

Thus, while defending the citizen against a bad functioning of the administration, the Ombudsman helps to safeguard and protect the fundamental rights, economic and social rights of citizens when these are disregarded by public services.

It is this latter dimension that is present in the title of the role of mediator in several European countries: he is the Defender of Rights in France, the Protector of Citizens in Quebec, the Defender of the People in Spain, ...

These few brief developments will demonstrate this.

Thus, in Belgium, Article 23 of the Constitution states: Everyone has the right to lead a life in accordance with human dignity. To this end, the law, the decree, ... guarantee, taking into account the corresponding obligations, economic, social and cultural rights and determine the conditions for their exercise. These rights include, in particular:

(1) the right to work and the freedom to choose a professional activity within the framework of a general employment policy, aimed, inter alia, at ensuring as stable and high a level of employment as possible, the right to fair working conditions and remuneration, and the right to information, consultation and collective bargaining;

(2) the right to social security, health protection and social, medical and legal assistance;

3) the right to decent housing;

(4) the right to the protection of a healthy environment;

(5) the right to cultural and social development. »

The effectiveness of such rights implies intervention or complementary action by the legislature.

In the present case, in Belgium, the federal State, it is for the Wallonia Region and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation in particular to implement the effective exercise of regional and Community standards or matters and to take the measures necessary for the proper implementation of those matters, most of which are indeed ‘rights’ vis-à-vis individuals.

In this context, if public interest bodies and administrations, in their relations with citizens/users, do not fulfil or do not fulfil their public service mission properly, the Ombudsman’s intervention is fully justified.

As a result, by helping citizens whose housing, health, environmental and cultural development rights are not respected to obtain satisfaction, the Ombudsman contributes to the protection and respect of fundamental economic and social rights.

This is all the more true given that the Ombudsman for the Walloon Region and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation is called upon by a specific category of citizens, who nowadays feel more vulnerable than others: These are the so-called excluded people in our society in serious crisis.

They are those excluded from work or from housing or care, those who can no longer pay their bills for water or gas or electricity.

However, the right to work, the right to decent housing, the right to health protection and social assistance, these fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution raise issues that are submitted to the Ombudsman by citizens in the hope that he will remedy them.

I quote Mr Beaudis again: The current crisis tends to situations, criss-crosses relations, exacerbates conflicts and pushes those in precariousness to acts of revolt and distress.

But lack of resources is not the only cause.

It must be admitted, the vulnerability of citizens also meets the brutality of society, the harshness of systems. The indiscriminate application of regulations, the lack of dialogue, the opacity and complexity of administrations or private organizations often lead to a sense, rightly or wrongly, of indifference, of injustice. »

Seized by ‘the grassroots’, by the excluded, the Ombudsman will try to provide a concrete vision of the daily difficulties of his fellow citizens, develop a more humane and direct relationship with the public authority and thereby participate in the fight against forms of exclusion.

Its intervention appears necessary in the current context of impoverishment of the population and "service cuts" water, gas, electricity, poor maintenance of social housing, on the part of regional bodies that have a public service mission.

The Ombudsman is the voice of these citizens vis-à-vis the administrative authorities. On the basis of his findings, he tried to go further than individual cases and proposed recommendations to the administration concerned and legislative reforms to improve the situation in general.

On the basis of his attempts at conciliation, redressing unfair situations and updating the malfunctioning of the administration, the Ombudsman appears to be an instrument of social peace and helps to ensure respect for economic and social rights in an effective manner.

Moreover, the late Jacques PELLETIER, Ombudsman of the French Republic, did not say: ‘Mediation and exclusion are closely linked in the daily exercise of the Ombudsman’s tasks?’

The President of the Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, speaking recently to the regional ombudsmen of the European Union, outlined his vision of the role of the ombudsperson in a context of economic crisis:

We are going through an unprecedented economic and social crisis. Europe is plagued by doubts, which seem to have taken over the population as well. In this difficult context, the Ombudsman can act as the bulwark of democracy by helping governments to maintain citizens’ trust through his role of reconciling views, protecting citizens and supporting good administration.

However, it is not a question of putting the citizen to sleep, but rather of encouraging his active participation in the improvement of good governance. This means committing him to exercise his own control over the administration, with the aim of making his individual complaint lead to the improvement of the rule applicable to all. It is this view of their role that is supported by many parliamentary ombudsmen. »

Ladies and gentlemen,

Gentlemen,

I have tried to show you that the Ombudsman, by his daily action, ensures that the stone of inhumanity does not fall lower and does not destroy in its fall the sum of the actions already carried out.

Sisyphus, finally freed from the condemnation of the gods, could one day reach the top of the mountain, wondered Mrs. Maria-Josefina LEITAO.

May we, through meetings such as these organised by Mr Diamondouros NIKIFOROS, at the very least create an individual and collective awareness: In these times of serious crisis, injustice, poverty, unemployment and the exclusion of others can no longer be witnessed without at least trying to remedy them.

Thank you for your attention.

Marc BERTRAND