The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, showed himself very concerned with regard to the high number of transparency-related complaints he receives every year. Thus he called on the EU administration to be more pro-active as regards access to documents and information during a conference held in Brussels.

The European Ombudsman made a call on the EU administration to be more pro-active as regards access to documents and information during the International Right to Know Day celebrated on 28 September. He also made a proposal to the EU institutions: to appoint information officers in the EU administration. According to Mr Diamandouros, their role should be to secure the citizens’ right of access to EU documents by encouraging the institutions to adopt a proactive approach, as well as ensuring that they react correctly to requests for access.

In addition, the Ombudsman called for useful, citizen-friendly, online registers of documents that not only inform citizens of the documents available, but, wherever possible, make those documents directly accessible to the public. In this way, citizens can obtain the document immediately, without having to make an application for access. He also mentioned a "best practice" example from the United States where the government is developing a single website bringing together all rulemaking proposals generated by nearly 300 federal agencies.

The role of the he European Ombudsman is to investigate complaints about maladministration in the EU institutions and bodies. Only in 2008, the European Ombudsman recorded more than 3,400 complaints. Any EU citizen, resident, or an enterprise or association in a Member State, can lodge a complaint with the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman offers a fast, flexible, and free means of solving problems with the EU administration.