EU institutions not 'citizen-centred' enough

BRUSSELS - EU institutions need to adopt a less cavalier attitude to citizens, says the European Ombudsman, arguing that just because an institution acts legally does not mean it is handling individual enquiries well.

Presenting the 2006 annual report on his activities, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros said that EU institutions "have a way to go before they can be said to be truly citizen-friendly."

"An open-minded, citizen-centred and service-oriented administration is the key to bridging the gap between citizens and institutions."

Mr Diamandouros pointed out that the number of critical remarks he had to make to institutions on how they dealt with citizens had risen from 29 in 2005 to 41 last year.

"Saying 'what I did was not illegal' is not good administration," the EU ombudsman said adding that "Public administration exists to serve citizens and not the other way around."

His office made 582 official enquiries into maladministration in 2006, with around one quarter concerning lack of transparency, including the refusal to hand over documents.

The commission received the most complaints – mainly because it is the institution that most citizens have dealings with - followed by the personnel office, the European Parliament and the Council, the EU member states' secreteriat.

In all, a total of 3,830 complaints were made to the Ombudsman in 2006 although the vast majority - around two thirds - actually fell outside his mandate.

The Spanish were the most prolific complainants, accounting for 20 percent, followed by the Germans at 14 percent and the French on 9 percent.

Small EU states complain the most

But in terms of complaints relative to the size of the population, the small EU states - Luxembourg, Malta and Cyprus - led the gripe pack.

Following enquiries by the Ombudsman, the EU commission withdrew misleading leaflets on air passenger rights and made documents on EU funding clearer - incidents that Mr Diamandouros called "star cases."

As a whole, after being nudged by the Ombudsman, the EU institutions also settled bills, paid interest, released documents and put an end to discrimination.

But Mr Diamandouros stressed it was not enough and there is never "an end point" for how citizen-centred public administrations can be.

He also noted that he expected many complaints from citizens from the newcomer states Bulgaria and Romania, on the model of citizens from the ten countries that joined the bloc in 2004, many of whom claimed language discrimination in the EU institutions.