New elected European Ombudsman: Emily O’Reilly

Evangelia Koundouraki July 4th, 2013

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eo_logo Emily O’Reilly (Ireland) was elected European Ombudsman on Wednesday, 3 July and she is the first woman to become European Ombudsman.

She was backed by 359 MEPs in a secret plenary vote.

Read more at the European Parliament’s website

The European Ombudsman

What does he do?

The European Ombudsman is an independent and impartial body that holds the EU administration to account. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about maladministration in EU institutions, bodies, offices, and agencies. Only the Court of Justice of the European Union, acting in its judicial capacity, falls outside the Ombudsman’s mandate. The Ombudsman may find maladministration if an institution fails to respect fundamental rights, legal rules or principles, or the principles of good administration.

This covers administrative irregularities, unfairness, discrimination, abuse of power, failure to reply, refusal of information, and unnecessary delay, for example. Any citizen or resident of the EU, or business, association, or other body with a registered office in the EU, can lodge a complaint. You need not be individually affected by the maladministration to complain. Please note that the European Ombudsman can only deal with complaints concerning the EU administration and not with complaints about national, regional, or local administrations, even when the complaints concern EU matters.

What does the European Ombudsman not do?

The Ombudsman cannot investigate:

complaints against national, regional, or local authorities in the EU Member States, even when the complaints are related to EU matters;
the activities of national courts or ombudsmen;
complaints against businesses or private individuals.

More information at the European Ombudsman website