Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-27-Speech-4-019"
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"en.20051027.3.4-019"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Ombudsman’s report for 2004 does not, in our opinion, contain an overall view of the principles involved, even though the need for one could certainly be felt. As many speakers have emphasised, the referendum results, which sank the draft European Constitution in some major countries with great democratic traditions, show that there is a strong sense of impatience and widespread dissatisfaction among European citizens with regard to the democratic nature of the European institutions.
In the eyes of the vast majority of European citizens, the European Union is seen as a Moloch, and the European Ombudsman should have felt the need to voice this feeling, which has been expressed so clearly. The report before us, however, is like a document from a statistics bureau: it is sterile and gives no hint of any battle over the principles and motivations behind the subjects dealt with.
We need only think of the sensitive area of subsidies and public funding, for instance, which are responsible for perhaps the major part of the impression that European citizens have of the lack of transparency in Europe’s institutions. To whom can European citizens turn when they see a sign for huge and perhaps useless works bearing the words ‘funded by the European Union’ and they think of the money they have paid in taxes? Why have you never thought of demanding that, wherever such signs are erected or EU-funded works are carried out, there should be an indication of how citizens – ordinary people – can reach the institution that should be upholding their desire for transparency?
If I think of what comes out every time that the anti-Mafia commission in my country touches on the use of European funds in certain regions, I wonder what an honest citizen from Sicily, Apulia, Calabria or Campania thinks when he or she sees such public works undertaken perhaps through non-transparent tendering processes.
I believe that the office of the European Ombudsman needs to change direction and that the essential, sensitive subject of the role of a modern democracy in Europe should be addressed. The report talks in general terms of contacts with national ombudsmen, without specifying what was discussed at such meetings or explaining the spirit behind this cooperation. Although this network is certainly useful and we welcome it, there is no explanation, either, of the ramifications of the work that it can accomplish through the presence of national ombudsmen in the individual Member States.
The idea of the European Ombudsman’s role that emerges from the report is somewhat ‘over-bureaucratic’, for a change. In addition, Mr Diamandouros, your statement of intent for your first five years of work is very general: you confine yourself to saying that citizens must know their rights, without mentioning the fact that a measure is currently being implemented that greatly endangers citizens’ freedom: the European arrest warrant. Let us therefore uphold the freedom of Europe’s citizens!"@en1
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