The Ombudsman’s work in 2021 improved public participation and the legitimacy of the EU’s decision-making process, which still needs to become more transparent, argue MEPs.
In their annual report on the activities of the European Ombudsman, MEPs commended the Ombudsman for being an important tool in increasing the transparency and democratic accountability of the EU institutions. The draft resolution was adopted unanimously by the Petitions Committee with 23 votes in favour, 0 against and 0 abstentions.
In 2011, the Ombudsman’s office did valuable work in promoting policies and practices within the EU institutions that could increase the public’s access to EU documents. MEPs emphasise that making the institutions more understandable and transparent to the citizens improves their perception of the EU, and call on the Commission to take the necessary steps to ensure full transparency. The Transparency Regulation on public access to documents is now twenty years old, and needs updating to fit a modern context in line with technological developments, argue MEPs, and hope that legislative work on its reform continues and takes into account the Ombudsman’s input.
Currently, the Council’s work is still marred by lack of transparency, say MEPs, who ask the EU institutions to make informal trilogue negotiations more transparent by releasing documentation -calendars, agendas, minutes, amendments- in a standardised and easily accessible online environment. A better balance should be found between transparency and the sensitive nature of the legislative negotiations, say the MEPs.
More transparency needed on policy-related text messages
MEPs also commend the Ombudsman’s inquiries into text messages between the President of the European Commission and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company in the context of vaccine procurement, and into access to public documents related to the quality of medical masks. According to the draft resolution, text messages related to public policy should be considered public documents under the Transparency Regulation.
In 2011, the Ombudsman also undertook other important inquiries, investigating for example revolving doors cases in the EU institutions, conflicts of interest within the High Level Forum on the EU Capital Markets Union. Finally, MEPs welcome the Ombudsman’s work in upholding the rights of persons with disabilities, for example by drafting best practises on the needs of persons with disabilities during emergencies.
After the vote, Rapporteur Anne-Sophie Pelletier (the Left, FR) said: “As the Rapporteur, I commend Emily O’Reilly’s tireless efforts aimed at strengthening the transparency, accountability and integrity of the EU Institutions, bodies, offices and agencies while focusing on the core of her mission: European citizens’ rights. I strongly believe that access to documents, ethics and transparency are necessary principles of a real participatory democracy. These principles are based on the trust of citizens in European public administrations, and the Ombudsman’s work contributes to strengthening this trust.”
The resolution will be tabled for a future plenary session of the European Parliament.
The top three concerns in the inquiries closed by the Ombudsman in 2021 were transparency and accountability (access to information and documents) (29%), culture of service (26%) and proper use of discretionary powers (including in infringement procedures) (18%).
In 2021, 20.536 citizens called on the Ombudsman’s services for help, of whom 17.060 were given advice through the Interactive Guide on the Ombudsman’s website, while 1.310 remaining requests for information were replied to by the Ombudsman’s services and 2.166 were handled by the Ombudsman as complaints.
