The European Ombudsman and the new commissioner in charge of administration will have to deal with a number of sensitive issues under this term of office and Treaty of Lisbon provisions.

The treaty creates a new ball game because many of its articles are related to and strengthen citizens’ rights. The Charter of Fundamental Rights, for example, becomes legally binding; the citizens’ initiative enables one million Europeans to ask the Commission to present draft legislation in a given area; and the right of access to documents will no longer be limited to Parliament, the Council and the Commission but will cover all EU bodies and institutions. In this context, Nikiforos Diamandouros (Greece), reappointed on 20 January by the European Parliament after seven years in office, has set three priorities for his new mandate. He presented them at a seminar held on 12 March in Brussels.

He wishes to ensure that citizens profit fully from the Treaty of Lisbon and the Charter, to strengthen a “culture of service” in the EU administration and to improve the efficiency of his office. The Ombudsman will deal directly with the new commissioner in charge of interinstitutional relations and administration, Slovak Social Democrat Maros Sefcovic. Among the subjects of discussion they have identified for the coming months are certain tough issues like:

- revision of Regulation 1049/2001 on public access to the institutions’ documents: the situation is still in a stalemate because Parliament, which sees the draft revision tabled by the Commission in 2008 as “a step backwards,” refuses to adopt its first-reading position to put pressure on the executive and force it to change the proposal. Meanwhile, the member states refuse to budge until the EP has voted at first reading. The Ombudsman’s position is close to the EP’s and he warns against a potential setback in citizens’ rights;

- the debate on the register of lobbies: launched in June 2008 and revised in October 2009, the system is still criticised over its low rate of participation (currently 2,606 registered). A study published on 11 March by ALTER-EU states that only 112 of the 286 consulting firms active in Brussels are registered, i.e. 40%, which the association sees as an illustration of the failure of the voluntary approach adopted ( www.europolitics.info > Search = 268262) ;

- organisation of the citizens’ initiative: the Commission kicked off a public consultation on 11 November 2009 in connection with its green paper, to which the Ombudsman contributed observations. He calls for more transparency and the least amount of bureaucracy possible for this new instrument. Based on the results, the Commission may present a draft regulation on 31 March, with the aim of sealing an agreement by the institutions by July and having the system operational by the start of 2011.

Other subjects will also come up, including revision of the financial regulation and statute of staff of the External Action Service, late payment by the Commission, the new staff recruitment system, etc. Maros Sefcovic, who recognises humorously that the Commission is the Ombudsman’s “best client” because 66% of the complaints lodged concern it (it is the biggest administration with 38,000 agents), says he wants to make advances on these issues.

Other recriminations could also arise. One of the leaders of the NGO Friends of the Earth, Paul de Clerck, urges the Ombudsman to be more active in certain areas where “the Commission does not seem to respect its rules of transparency and ethics,” namely: the content and time limits for its answers to requests for access to documents, its rules on conflicts of interest in particular when EU officials accept “gifts” from lobbyists, and the composition of the expert groups it uses so often.

The Ombudsman wants citizens to benefit from the Lisbon Treaty and the Fundamental Rights Charter.