The European Parliament has passed on 25 November a resolution stressing that transparency and access to information on what the EU administration is doing, are vital to maintain citizens' trust in it. For that reason, the Eurochamber recalled the importance of Ombudsman's work in this sense and the need to count upon Commission's collaboration.

The resolution points out that the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which the Lisbon Treaty rendered legally binding, defines the right to good administration as a fundamental right of EU citizens, and reiterates that the Treaty extends the Ombudsman's remit to include the common foreign and security policy and the activities of the European Council.

In 2009 the Ombudsman registered 3,098 complaints, 23% (727) of which were found to be within his sphere of competence, almost the same share as in 2008 (802 complaints admissible out of 3,406). MEPs encourage the Ombudsman to continue his efforts to inform Europe's citizens about his role and the limits to his powers.

Lack of transparency is the the most common case of maladministration found by the Ombudsman in 2009, including refusal to provide information (36% of inquiries), injustice or abuse of power (14%), avoidable delays (13%), procedural errors (13%), negligence (6%) and failure by the Commission to fulfil its duties as guardian of the Treaties (6%).

Commission could face sanctions if failing to collaborate with Ombudsman

The fact that the Commission only met the original deadlines for replying to complaints in four of the 22 cases involving access to documents is specially striking. For that reason, the European Parliament has asked the Commission to undertake to fulfil its duty to co-operate with the Ombudsman in the future. One particular case involving maladministration based on refusal to access information mentioned by the Parliament, was Ombudsman action by request of an ONG active on environmental issues which asked for access to information and documents relating to meetings held between the Commission and representatives of car manufacturers.

The Parliament has underlined that should the Commission persist in failing to collaborate in Ombudsman's investigations and reply in due time, Parliament may sanction the Commission. It adds that such sanctions may include inter alia placing a portion of the Commission’s budget for administrative expenditure into a reserve.