Strasbourg, 20/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - In a speech made on Monday at the Higher Institute of Social and Political Science in Lisbon, the European Ombudsman stated that the first draft of the constitutional treaty contained very little significant progress with regard to citizens, as well as clear omissions and errors. Jacob Söderman said that he thought the two ideas of a President of the European Council and a Congress of peoples, rather than bringing them together, would distance citizens from the decision-making process in the European Union even more. The European Ombudsman also declared that there had been a debate around the issue of maintaining a "Union that was unceasingly becoming closer" in the constitutional treaty, which currently figures in Article 1 of the Treaty on the EU. In Mr Söderman's view, the principles that follow these words in Article 1 are even more significant because they suggest a Union between European peoples, where the decisions that are taken are done so in the greatest possible respect within the principle of openness and the closest collaboration of citizens possible. Mr Söderman explained that currently, there were more versions of a code of good administrative conduct than there were days in the week. He therefore requested a clear legal basis for Community administrative law that could be applied to all the institutions and bodies of the Union. The Ombudsman explained that if the latter was not forthcoming the right of the citizen to good administration would continue to be hindered by interminable bureaucratic debates and that this legal basis should be included in the future Constitution for providing citizens with the means of appeal in cases where Community law is poorly applied. He also regretted that appeals to the European Ombudsman had been forgotten, although this service had existed for seven years and now received more than 2000 complaints a year. As well as the recognition of the fundamental principles of transparency and subsidiarity, Mr Söderman also appealed for the incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the accession of the EU to all international instruments for protecting human rights. He very much hoped that these omissions would be rectified in the second draft of the treaty which is expected to be published before Christmas.
European Parliament Plenary Session