The Greek, who has held the position since 2003, was appointed by an absolute majority of MEPs to serve a fresh five-year term at a plenary vote in Strasbourg.
"I look forward to continuing my efforts to improve the quality of the EU administration and to promote a culture of service in the EU institutions for the benefit of European citizens," Diamandouros said upon hearing the news.
He won 340 of the 648 valid votes cast, with former Belgian Ombudsman Monette coming a close second with 289. The other candidate, Italy's Vittorio Bottoli, received just 19 votes.
College of Europe Professor Monette was making a renewed attempt to secure the position after being defeated by Diamandouros in 2002.
Speaking to the Hellenic News of America ahead of yesterday's vote, German liberal MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis (ALDE) claimed that Diamandouros had come under fire from conservative members for fighting for more transparency during his time in Brussels.
"This was obviously a little too close to the citizen for some conservative deputies," Chatzimarkakis said, before describing Diamandouros as "the right man for more closeness to citizens".
On the initiative of Finnish Green MEP Heidi Hautala, 26 cross-party colleagues from the Nordic region signed a letter in support of the Greek when the result still hung in the balance.
Despite the controversy, European People's Party (EPP) group coordinator in the petitions committee Pascale Gruny (France) congratulated Diamandouros on his re-appointment, saying "the EPP group […] looks forward to working with [him] towards better protection of European citizens".
Greek 'only candidate' with right credentials
Expressing hope that Diamandouros' "continued commitment" would help to spur the European Commission to improve EU access to documents legislation, Hautala said the Greek was "the only candidate to have demonstrated the credentials to uphold the values that are inherent [in the institution of ombudsman], originally rooted in the Nordic legal tradition".
Setting out his priorities for the next five years, Diamandouros said he would seek to ensure that citizens benefit fully from the Treaty of Lisbon and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and to strengthen constructive dialogue with EU institutions and bodies to improve service to citizens.
He identified ensuring that citizens benefit from the right to access EU documents, engage in dialogue with the EU institutions and make the most of the Ombudsman service as key ways of doing this, and also pledged to use resources more efficiently.
It is also the Ombudsman's responsibility to inform citizens of their right to have their affairs handled impartially, fairly and within a reasonable time by the EU administration.
To this end, Diamandouros pledged to boost his own visibility by running targeted information campaigns.
The Greek will seek to step up cooperation with national and regional ombudsmen, as well as other information and problem-solving mechanisms like Europe Direct, SOLVIT and the European Network of Ombudsmen.
Diamandouros also pledged to work to conclude his investigations more quickly in future, and carry out more rigorous self-assessment of his handling of citizens' complaints.
