RESOLUTION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  
of 17 April 2013  
with observations forming an integral part of the Decision on discharge for implementation of the 
European Union general budget for the financial year 2011, Section VIII — European Ombudsman  
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,  
— having regard to the European Union general budget for the financial year 2011 (  1 ), 
— having regard to the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2011 
(COM(2012) 436 – C7-0231/2012) (  2 ), 
— having regard to the Annual Report of the Court of Auditors on implementation of the budget for the 
financial year 2011, together with the institutions’ replies (  3 ), 
— having regard to the statement of assurance (  4 ) as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and 
regularity of the underlying transactions provided by the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2011 
pursuant to Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,  
— having regard to Article 314(10) and Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the 
European Union,  
— having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial 
Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (  5 ), and in particular Articles 
50, 86, 145, 146 and 147 thereof,  
— having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council 
of 25 October 2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union and repealing 
Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (  6 ), and in particular Articles 164, 165 and 166 
thereof,  
— having regard to Rule 77 of, and Annex VI to, its Rules of Procedure,  
— having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A7-0094/2013),  
1. Notes with satisfaction that in its 2011 annual report, the Court of Auditors observed that no 
significant weaknesses had been identified in respect to the audited topics related to the human 
resources and the procurement for the European Ombudsman (‘the Ombudsman’);  
2. Welcomes the fact that on the basis of its audit work, the Court of Auditors concluded that the 
payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2011 for administrative and other expen ­
diture of the institutions and bodies were free from material error;  
3. Stresses that the Ombudsman’s budget is purely administrative and amounted in 2011 to EUR 
9 427 395, with EUR 7 318 795 being allocated to Title 1 (expenditure relating to persons working 
for the institution), EUR 1 469 200 attributed to Title 2 (buildings, equipment and miscellaneous 
operating expenditure) and EUR 639 400 for Title 3 (expenditure resulting from special functions 
carried out by the institution);EN L 308/134 Official Journal of the European Union 16.11.2013  
( 1 ) OJ L 68, 15.3.2011.  
( 2 ) OJ C 348, 14.11.2012, p. 1.  
( 3 ) OJ C 344, 12.11.2012, p. 1.  
( 4 ) OJ C 348, 14.11.2012, p. 130.  
( 5 ) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.  
( 6 ) OJ L 298, 26.10.2012, p. 1.
4. Takes note that of the total appropriations, 92,54 % were committed (89,65 % in 2010) and 85,62 % 
paid (84,03 % in 2010) and welcomes the improvement of the utilisation rate; calls for further efforts 
to improve the utilisation rate and for the changes made to be monitored;  
5. Calls for an obligation to improve financial planning without delay so as to ensure more efficient 
budget implementation;  
6. Commends the Ombudsman’s Annual Management Plan for 2011 where key performance indicators 
are included to measure the office’s performance in achieving its objectives;  
7. Invites the Ombudsman to put the unused rate of the interpretation services requested during that year 
in the next annual activity report;  
8. Welcomes the internal auditor’s conclusions that the Ombudsman has implemented two of the three 
recommendations to help improve the Ombudsman’s office in its internal management and control 
procedures in the processing of payment requests; points out that an improvement as regards timely 
feedback on actual payments is still needed; calls for the third recommendation, covering more timely 
feedback on actual payments, to be implemented without delay;  
9. Calls for a sustainable increase of the percentage of decisions on admissibility taken within one month 
of receiving a complaint which attained a figure of 70 % in 2011; believes that the re-structuring of the 
Ombudsman’s office, put in place at the beginning of 2012, together with a more streamlined 
procedure of the Registry can contribute to a better performance of the Complaint Unit in the 
coming years;  
10. Notes with concern that the average length of inquiries continues to increase in 2011 with only 66 % 
of cases closed within 12 months and 80 % of cases closed within 18 months; calls for this rate to be 
substantially improved; calls on the Ombudsman to clarify what percentage of cases involve more than 
one round of inquiries and when there is a need for a second round of inquiries;  
11. Calls on the Ombudsman, with a view to reducing the length of procedures, to include an indication of 
the percentage of resources affecting the handling of complaints submitted by the public, and the 
measures he considers necessary in order to make services more rapid and effective, in particular 
through the reallocation of resources, in his annual report;  
12. Calls on the Ombudsman to set out the ways in which it addresses citizens of the Union and the 
amount of funding it draws from the budget to this end in its annual report;  
13. Calls on the Ombudsman’s office to include an exhaustive table of all the human resources at the 
Ombudsman’s disposal, broken down by category, grade, sex, participation in professional training and 
nationality in the next annual activity report and to provide the full set of documents required for 
previous years;  
14. Points out that the annual report on the activities of the Ombudsman in 2011 was adopted by the 
plenary in October 2012 and is satisfied with the observations made therein.EN 16.11.2013 Official Journal of the European Union L 308/135