"Three quarters of the complaints I receive each year are outside my mandate," EU Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros said last week, launching the site at a seminar on EU problem-solving. The Ombudsman can only investigate allegations of "maladministration in the EU institutions," he explained.
Citizens using the online guide, which is available in all 23 official languages of the EU, must answer a series of questions regarding the nature of their complaint to help determine whether it is admissible to the Ombudsman. Admissible complaints concern issues like lack of transparency, late payments for EU projects, discrimination and unfairness.
Many of the complaints the Ombudsman receives "can be dealt with by other problem-solving mechanisms," the Greek explained, announcing: "With the help of our new website, we want to guide complainants to the right address to save them time and money and to spare them frustration and disappointment".
Diamandouros told EurActiv last month that the "vast majority" of the 3,500-4000 complaints he receives each year from citizens, companies, regional offices, associations and NGOs are inadmissible, because they should be dealt with at national level (EurActiv 18/02/09).
The Ombudsman last week cited national and regional ombudsmen, who deal with accusations of maladministration at member-state level, and online problem-solving network SOLVIT (which deals with the misapplication of internal market law) as examples of other places to turn.
The new guide will also recommend complainants to consider trying the European Parliament's petitions system.
Of the admissible complaints received by Diamandouros from citizens in 2008, 36% concern transparency and access to documents. 70-75% of these address the European Commission, with the remainder primarily regarding the EU's recruitment office (EPSO) and the European Parliament, he told EurActiv.
The Ombudsman will present his annual report for 2008 on 27 April.
