Madam President, it is my pleasure in this report to endorse the annual report for 2001 submitted by the Ombudsman, which is a comprehensive and detailed overview of the activities conducted during the year and in particular of all the various cases processed. After seven years, the role of the European Ombudsman – to enhance openness and democratic accountability in the decision-making and administration of the European Union – is well established. By tackling maladministration in the Community institutions and bodies, the role of the Ombudsman has made an essential contribution towards a Union in which decisions are truly taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen. The fact that the number of direct complaints is still on the increase again in 2001 clearly demonstrates that the Ombudsman is reaching more and more people in the course of his activities. Despite this steady rise in complaints, the report welcomes the reduction in time taken to deal with each case. The present Ombudsman, Mr Söderman, from whom we have already heard, has become a well recognised and respected figure in the European Union and his receipt of awards such as the Alexis de Tocqueville prize further demonstrates this. He has even paid a visit to my own country, Wales, showing a commitment and dedication through his work to visit some of the most important places in the world. During his time in office he has emphasised the Rule of Law, taking fundamental rights seriously and applying basic principles of good administration, such as transparency, responsibility and respect for citizens. This has been done in no less than 15 Member States and through the medium of 12 Community languages. He deserves his retirement! The report very much welcomes the fact that the European authorities are increasingly taking action to settle a complaint once they are made aware of the problem in question and that, in other cases, a friendly solution has been arrived at. The Ombudsman must also be commended for his efforts to inform more citizens of their right to complain. This is a matter that the Committee on Petitions is continually aware of. This means that the Ombudsman's work has to include the continuous updating of his website with a view to making his role known to an ever-wider public and to establishing networks of links with regional ombudsmen. In this regard the Ombudsman is faced with, on the one hand, wanting to inform as many people as possible of this right to complain and, on the other, remembering that the remit of his office is limited to the Community institutions. We in Parliament have a role to play here, in ensuring that we remain aware of the Ombudsman's role and informing citizens of this right. The work of the Ombudsman, however, has not been without obstacles during this period. In the field of good administration the European Parliament adopted unanimously last September the European Union Code on Good Administrative Behaviour and called on the Commission to propose a regulation on the subject. I welcome the Ombudsman's decision to apply the principles set out in this code in his activities. I should like to express my disappointment here, however, that the Commission has yet to act on this important request. The report calls for Parliament to consider drawing up a legislative initiative report on the basis of this model code under Article 192 and Rule 59. In relation to openness and good administrative behaviour this report notes attempts by certain institutions to use recently adopted data protection rules to impose confidentiality on their activities. It must be made clear that data protection rules are mainly concerned with the protection of private and family life and certainly should not in any way restrict the information available to citizens on the activities of the European Union institutions. With regard to the infringement procedure, the Article 226 procedure, in which the Commission investigates complaints about infringements of Community law by Member States, which continues to be the subject of complaints to the Ombudsman – and this is something with which we in the Committee on Petitions are all too familiar – the report finds that, despite recent improvements, this procedure is secretive, and that the complainant is still not recognised as a participant. Delays occur because the Commission has too many cases to deal with. The Ombudsman was on the record for criticising the Commission's recent handling of the Greek environmental complaint, in this case involving infringements of Community environmental law by the Greek authorities; enquiries revealed a catalogue of information being concealed, the wrong directive being applied and a failure to ensure that the case was dealt with impartially. Whilst we appreciate the hard work carried out by the Commission, the Ombudsman and our Committee on Petitions depend on their investigations being effective, and we must be confident that such cases are being handled correctly. Finally, I welcome the offer by the Ombudsman to develop joint activities with the Committee on Petitions with a view to reinforcing the contacts and exchange of experience with national and regional Ombudsmen and committees on petitions. Closer cooperation between the European Ombudsman's office and the Committee on Petitions is vital. Our work is very much interlinked and we were provided with excellent examples of how this could be achieved when the Ombudsman addressed the Committee on Petitions in April. I commend the report to the House and wish the Ombudsman a very happy retirement.

Political group: Verts-ALE