The European Ombudsman

10 February 2003. Jacob Soderman, Ombudsman of the European Union, addressed his report on the Ombudsman’s activities in 2002 to Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament. This was the seventh annual report on the Ombudsman’s activities since 1995. During this time, many thousands of cases, both correctly and incorrectly addressed to the Ombudsman’s mandate, had passed through the Ombudsman’s office. More than 1 500 complaints correctly addressed to the Ombudsman triggered the opening of inquiries. Of these, 500 cases were clearly successful for complainants, as the institutions involved resolved the problems raised to the benefit of citizens, while those that did not accept the Ombudsman’s decisions addressed to them accounted for only a small percentage. From the point of view of the Ombudsman’s effective fulfilment of his powers and duties under the Treaties and of his statutory remit, 2002 was a year of significant progress. The Ombudsman became a significant actor in the implementation of citizens’ rights in the Union as a whole, alongside the European Parliament, acting in close connection with the remit of the Ombudsman, especially with regard to the tasks falling within the remit of Parliament’s Committee on Petitions. What does this mean in terms of the entire system of European institutions set up to respect and protect citizens’ rights? What place does it occupy among them and how is it regarded by citizens? How is the Ombudsman embedded in the European Union’s legal system? 1 The position of the Ombudsman (Ombudsman) within the European Union under the Treaty The creation of the Ombudsman’s office for the whole of the European Union was linked to a revision of the Communities’ Treaty arrangements in the first half of the 1990s.