Brussels, 27/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - On 26 April, the European Ombudsman presented his annual report for 2003. This first report by Nikiforos Diamandouros, who took up his post on 1 April 2003, still covers work by his predecessor, Jacob Söderman.
The total number of complaints received in 2003 by the services of the European Ombudsman was 2436, i.e. 10% up on the previous year. In total, 253 new investigations were opened during the year. The Ombudsman also dealt with a large number of requests for information, including 2538 sent by electronic means.
The citizens of the Union still far too often continue to call on the European Ombudsman for matters that do not come under his sphere of competence. Only 25% of complaints fell within the Ombudsman's mandate in 2003. Out of the remaining 75%, the error was attributable to the fact that the complaint did not target an institution or a Community body. Out of all the admissible complaints, 73.4% led to an investigation. In total, 180 investigations, including some opened in 2002, were closed within the year. In 47.3% of the cases, the Ombudsman did not note bad administration. The affair was settled by the institution concerned in 26.1% of the cases. Some 10.9% of cases were the subject of an Ombudsman decision together with a critical comment addressed to the institution concerned. Amicable solutions were found in 2.2% of cases.
The European Ombudsman cooperates with a broad network of mediators and similar bodies in Europe. The network now covers 90 offices in 30 countries and comprises offices at national and regional scale in the European Union and at national scale in the countries applying for EU accession, in Norway and Iceland.