On Tuesday 17 December, the European Parliament elected former Portuguese Secretary of State for Justice, Teresa Anjinho, as European Ombudsman for a five-year term, replacing Irishwoman Emily O’Reilly.
A member of the European People’s Party (EPP), Ms Anjinho was elected to the Portuguese Parliament, held the post of Deputy Ombudsman in her country and sat on the Supervisory Committee of OLAF.
Two rounds of voting were required for the election. In the first round, the new European Ombudsman came out on top (225 votes, supported mainly by the EPP and Renew Europe groups), followed by the following candidates: the Dutchman Reinier van Zutphen (177 votes, supported by the S&D group), the Latvian Julia Laffranque (81 votes), the Italians Marino Fardelli (52 votes) and Emilio De Capitani (42 votes, supported by The Left group) and the Austrian Claudia Mahler (26 votes).
In the second round, Ms Anjinho, who reportedly intends to be based in Strasbourg, obtained an absolute majority (344 votes) thanks in particular to a rallying of MEPs who had initially cast their votes for Ms Laffranque. Mr Zutphen again came second (177 votes), gaining support among the MEPs who had supported Mr De Capitani’s candidacy.
At her hearing before the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions in early December, Ms Anjinho said that a complaint lodged by citizens is “more than an expression of dissatisfaction — it is an act of trust, a belief that institutions can listen, understand, and resolve”. A complaint “reminds us of a fundamental truth: not all that is lawful is fair, and not all that is fair is capture in law”, she added, believing that “recognising this gap is critical”.
Ms Anjinho set herself three priorities for action if elected: - empowering individual complaints, giving priority to those from “vulnerable and underrepresented” population groups; - strategising the European Ombudsman’s ‘own-initiative inquiries’ by selecting those with the greatest potential impact, particularly in areas related to transparency or aimed at tackling inefficiencies in the EU institutions; - fostering intelligent partnerships with the network of national ombudsmen, academia and civil society, with the aim of improving the monitoring of EU institutions and exchanging good practice.
See Ms Anjinho’s speech: https://aeur.eu/f/euh
Also on Tuesday, the European Parliament adopted the draft report by Alex Saliba (S&D, Maltese) on the activities of the European Ombudsman for 2023. He calls on the European Commission to “urgently” resolve delays in access to documents (see EUROPE 13170/31). He is also concerned about the Commission’s lack of transparency in its dealings with the tobacco industry.
See the report as adopted: https://aeur.eu/f/euk (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Léa Marchal)