BackThe European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, has been re-elected by the European Parliament with 569 votes in favour out of 678 MEPs voting. Her mandate will last for five years.
Emily O'Reilly explained: "I am delighted to have been re-elected as European Ombudsman and I thank the European Parliament for its broad cross-party support. The work that I began in October 2013 continues, transforming my strategic goals into reality, with a view to improving the quality of the European Union administration for the sake of all Europeans.
The EU has unfortunately not yet achieved the high levels of legitimacy which it needs among many Europeans. This is mainly a political challenge but also one for the EU administration. It is already of a very high standard, but must become the ‘gold standard’ in ethics, transparency, accountability and effectiveness. My task is to work with the institutions and agencies to help make that happen.
The new European Commission has made a fresh and positive start, and I am confident we can make real progress together in the next five years."
New strategy "Towards 2019"
The European Ombudsman will now work to implement her new strategy "Towards 2019" with the key objectives of ensuring relevance, increasing visibility and achieving greater impact.
In the past year, she has already started to make greater use of the Ombudsman's powers by launching strategic inquiries in the public interest. She opened inquiries in relation to transparency of the on-going TTIP negotiations with the US, which have already brought about results. Both the Council and the Commission have since then improved access to key TTIP documents.
She also opened other inquiries related to lobbying transparency, for example into the way the Commission deals with potential conflicts of interest when senior EU officials leave their jobs to work in the private sector. Another strategic investigation concerns the transparency and composition of the Commission's expert groups.
Source: European Ombudsman
