Strasbourg, 11/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - Nikoforos Diamandouros, the European Ombudsman since April 2003, was re-elected on Thursday by the European Parliament, for a mandate of five years. He won 564 votes, against 45 for the ombudsman of the region of Campania, Giuseppe Fortunato. Speaking to the press, Mr Diamandouros, who was flanked by the president of the petitions committee, Marcin Libicki (UEN, Poland), said that in 2004, approaches made by citizens to the Ombudsman had increased by 51% (I hope that this is because people are more aware of their rights rather than because the behaviour of the institutions has worsened, commented Commissioner Margot Wallström to the plenary).
Mr Diamandouros focused on three main future challenges: -ensuring that citizens' rights are respected at all levels, which means correct information for citizens, particularly via intensified cooperation with the national ombudsmen (and possibly common inquiries). Mr Diamandouros also spoke of the possibility of creating a single telephone number; -ensuring that institutions observe higher standards of administration; -serving the citizen effectively. The European Constitution will make the Charter of Fundamental Rights legally binding, and work must be done to ascertain how to treat complaints presented under this. In order to have a "top-class EU administration", Mr Diamandouros reiterated the need for a "law to promote good administration", thus putting an end to the existing confusion between the codes for good administrative conduct of the various institutions.