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P10_TA(2025)0084

1. PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION

Discharge 2023: EU general budget - European Ombudsman

on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2023, Section VIII – European Ombudsman

Committee on Budgetary Control

(2024/2027(DEC))

PE764.991

1. European Parliament decision of 7 May 2025 on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2023, Section VIII – European Ombudsman (2024/2027(DEC))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2023,

3. Instructs its President to forward this decision and the resolution forming an integral part of it to the European Ombudsman, the European Council, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Data Protection Supervisor and the European External Action Service, and to arrange for their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (L series).

2. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

2. European Parliament resolution of 7 May 2025 with observations forming an integral part of the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2023, Section VIII – European Ombudsman (2024/2027(DEC))

with observations forming an integral part of the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2023, Section VIII – European Ombudsman

The European Parliament,

(2024/2027(DEC))

– having regard to its decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2023, Section VIII – European Ombudsman,

A. whereas in the context of the discharge procedure, the discharge authority wishes to stress the particular importance of further strengthening the democratic legitimacy of the Union institutions by improving transparency and accountability, and by implementing the concept of performance-based budgeting and good governance of human resources;

B. whereas Article 228 of the Treaty on the functioningFunctioning of the European Union provides for the election of a European Ombudsman (the ‘Ombudsman’) by the European Parliament who shall be empowered to receive complaints from any citizen of the Union or any natural or legal person residing or having its registered office in a Member State concerning instances of maladministration in the activities of the Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, with the exception of the Court of Justice of the European Union acting in its judicial role, and to examine such complaints and report on them;

C. whereas Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2021/1163 of the European Parliament of 24 June 2021 lays down the regulations and general conditions governing the performance of the Ombudsman’s duties (Statute of the European Ombudsman);

D. whereas, following the adoption of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2021/1163, the Ombudsman adopted its revised implementing provisions on 21 June 2023;

1. Notes that the budget of the Ombudsman falls under MFF headingHeading 7 ’European‘European public administration’, which amounted to a total of EUR 12,3 billion, i.e. 6,4 % of Union budget spending, in 2023; notes that the budget of the Ombudsman represented 0,11 % of MFF headingHeading 7 appropriations;

2. Notes that the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’), in its Annual Report for the financial year 2023 (the ‘Court’s report’), examined a sample of 70 transactions under the heading ‘European public administration’, of which 21 (30 %) contained errors; further notes that for five of those errors, which were quantified by the Court, the Court estimated a level of error below the materiality threshold; notes with satisfaction from the Court’s report that for 2023 the Court did not identify any significant issues concerning the Ombudsman;

Budgetary and financial management

4. Notes that the budget of the Ombudsman amounted to EUR 13 212 447 in 2023, which represents an increase of EUR 990 339 (i.e. +8,1+ 8,1 %) compared to 2022; takes note, from the Ombudsman’s replies to the questionnaire submitted by the Committee on Budgetary Control for the 2023 budgetary discharge (the ‘Questionnaire’), that this increase is mainly due to salary adjustments and two additional posts that were needed to reinforce the Ombudsman’s core activities;

5. Notes that the budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2023 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 95,39 %, representing a decrease of 1,58 % compared to 2022; notes that the current year payment appropriations execution rate was 97,58 %, representing an increase of 1,31 % compared to 2022, which led to a decrease in automatic carry-overs from 3,73 % (or EUR 442 209) in 2002 to 2,42 % (or 304EUR 550304 EUR)550) in 2023; regrets, nevertheless, the lower execution rate of the automatic carry-overs of appropriations from the previous year, which in 2023 was 73,27 % compared to 92,59 % in 2022; calls for an improvement in this regard;

6. Notes that in the course of 2023, the Ombudsman made nine budgetary transfers pursuant to Article 29 of the Financial Regulation, representing a total of EUR 241 150 or 1,8 % of the appropriations for that financial year, compared to 2,8 % in 2022; notes that those transfers were needed for the reinforcement of various budget lines on, for example, furniture, security and surveillance buildings, digitalisation of archives or informatics; observes in this context that the IT expenditure has increased by 41 %, from EUR 159 714 in 2022 to EUR 224 698 in 2023;

16. Takes note, from the Ombudsman’s report to the discharge authority entitled ‘Report on the follow-up to the discharge for the financial year 2022’, of the issues observed in the area of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), namely significant delays encountered by the European Commission in replying to requests for access to information, especially the delayed publication of the largest RRF recipients by Member States, undermining transparency, as well as with regard to the reasoning on the basis of which the Commission established the level for granting public access to documents in some cases; expresses concern with regard to the Commission’s decision not to accept all the suggestions and solution proposals that the Ombudsman made in that regard, recalling the importance of the good practice principles for governmental transparency in the use of recovery funds produced in cooperation with the OECD; regrets that significant divergences persist at the national level regarding the timeliness and completeness of information on final recipients; calls on the Commission to intensify its efforts to address these shortcomings as part of its ongoing monitoring and control functions; stresses the importance of consistent and complete reporting across all Member States to ensure transparency and accountability; calls on the Ombudsman to maintain its monitoring of the Commission’s efforts to ensure transparency and effective supervision of the RRF; calls further on the Ombudsman to continue informing the budgetary authority periodically about the difficulties encountered in its work on the transparency and accountability of the RRF;

17. Highlights the fact that, in 2023, following an own-initiative inquiry that revealed that, when individuals seek a review of an access decision, known as a confirmatory request, the Commission misses the deadlines set out in the law in 85 % of cases, the Ombudsman urged the European Commission to promptly address systemic delays in processing access to documents requests; calls for the swift implementation of the Ombudsman’s urgent recommendation for a thorough reassessment to ensure compliance with the deadlines set out in Union law, such as Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001;1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council ; commends the Ombudsman for its special report to the European Parliament, asking the institution for its formal support in getting the Commission to act on her recommendation; recalls that the Ombudsman discussed the report with Members of the European Parliament in the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in November 2023;2023 ;

18. Notes with great concern that the Ombudsman receives many complaints from citizens about extreme delays in gaining access to requested documents; supports the Ombudsman’s views that access delayed is effectively access denied and that administrative processes should be streamlined to ensure that citizens receive access to documents in a timely manner;manner ;

19. Notes that the internal auditor carried out a review of the Ombudsman’s risk management framework; notes that the parties agreed on a nine-point action plan to be implemented by the end of 2024; calls on the Ombudsman to inform the discharge authority on progress made in implementing that plan;

20. Notes an increase of 11 % in the total number of the Ombudsman’s staff from 74 in 2022 to 82 in 2023, mainly due to an increase in the number of contract staff and temporary staff; notes further that, in 2023, 40 officials were employed by the Ombudsman, compared to 39 and 38 in 2022 and 2021 respectively, 33 temporary staff, compared to 28 and 30 in 2022 and 2021 respectively, and 9 contract agents, compared to 7 and 6 in 2022 and 2021 respectively; notes with satisfaction an increase in the share of staff working on the core-business of the Ombudsman (complaints and inquiries), from 40,54 % in 2022 to 42,68 % in 2023; notes with satisfaction that the staff occupation rate increased from 91,8 % in 2022 to 95 % in 2023 and the turnover rate decreased from 9,9 % in 2022 to 5,2 % in 2023;

21. Regrets that the post of the Secretary-General of the Ombudsman has been vacant for more than two years, namely since 1 September 2022; notes from the Questionnaire that “as‘as a courtesy to the new Ombudsman, who will be elected by the end of 2024, the current Ombudsman decided to leave the post vacant for her successor to decide on the appointment”;appointment’; calls on the next Ombudsman to make sure that the periods of vacancy of management positions remain as short as possible and are not longer than the time necessary for recruitment of new staff in those positions;

22. Commends the Ombudsman for its call for expressions of interest for jobs (inquiry officers) which was successfully concluded in 2023 with the establishment of a reserve list of 19 candidates, 6 of them having been recruited the same year; notes that this has allowed the Ombudsman to reduce the time needed for recruitment which has been an issue in the past; notes further that the Ombudsman organised, with the help of EPSO,the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), three internal competitions in 2023, in order to retain in-house talent; acknowledges that such actions help to improve the institution’s efficiency;

23. Notes that, despite being a small institution, the Ombudsman managed to have 19 nationalities represented in its staff in 2023, as a result of proactive communication and outreach activity, notably through social media and online platforms to advertise vacancies; notes with dissatisfaction, however, an overrepresentation of some nationalities (for example French and Irish) and an underrepresentation of other nationalities (for example Romanian and Spanish); urges the Ombudsman to continue its efforts to achieve a balanced geographical distribution of nationals from all Member States within its staff, in particular at management level, by improving communication, fostering visibility, and enhancing job conditions to attract underrepresented nationalities;

29. Welcomes the Ombudsman’s continued efforts to strengthen and raise awareness about the ethical framework of the institution; notes with appreciation that in 2023 the Ombudsman revised the whistleblower policy to strengthen protections for potential whistleblowers, ensure better alignment with data protection standards, enhance confidentiality and support, and incorporate provisions on ethics correspondents; further welcomes the full deployment of the SYSPER ethics tool that allows staff to update declarations (on their conflicts of interest and on their spouses’/partners’ professional activities) and organised an interactive training course entitled ‘Respect and dignity at work and our roles as actors, recipients and bystanders’; welcomes the result of the general staff survey carried out in 2023 confirming high levels of staff awareness about ethical matters; calls for the publication of all high-level meetings of the Ombudsman’s office with external actors, including corporate entities, interest groups and EU agencies, to ensure transparency in decision-making and advocacy efforts;

30. Notes that the internal audit (report(Report 22/03) on the Ombudsman’s ethical framework was finalised in 2023 with six issued recommendations to be implemented by 31 December 2024; notes from the Questionnaire that four of those recommendations have been fully implemented; invites the Ombudsman to report to the discharge authority on the implementation status of the remaining two recommendations;

31. Notes that the anti-fraud strategy of the Ombudsman is largely based on the ethical framework in place and the principle of the segregation of duties for financial functions; notes that in 2023 the Ombudsman reviewed and adopted the code of professional standards applicable to staff involved in the control of financial operations setting out the duties and responsibilities in the detection of fraudulent transactions, including the procedure to follow in cases of suspected fraud;

35. Welcomes the fact that the Ombudsman’s final (after transfers) budget for buildings and associated costs decreased by approx. 15 %, from EUR 1 622 200 in 2022 to EUR 1 373 000 in 2023; notes that the appropriations for rent decreased by 26 %, from EUR 1 177 700 in 2022 to EUR 866 100 in 2023, with a payment execution rate in both years of close to 100 %;

36. Notes that, following the move of the Ombudsman Brussels’ Office to new facilities provided by the Parliament in 2021, the building was organised as a collaborative workspace with very few individual offices and flexible collaborative meeting facilities; notes with satisfaction that the Ombudsman does not practicepractise hot-desking and that all members of staff have their own desk with ample storage; notes that no changes were made to the offices in 2023 and that a general staff survey conducted in 2023 showed that the majority of staff (56 %) replied positively regarding the physical arrangements in their offices in Brussels;

37. Recalls that the Ombudsman does not own its own buildings but rents a building in Brussels and office space in Strasbourg; notes with satisfaction that the Havel building in Strasbourg is fully accessible to persons with reduced mobility or other disabilities and strongly regrets that accessibility to the building rented in Brussels needs improvement; calls on the Parliament to improve accessibility to the building rented to the Ombudsman in Brussels;

42. Encourages the Ombudsman to work in close cooperation with ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity); suggests that regularly updated cybersecurity-related training programmes be offered to all staff within the Ombudsman;

43. Notes, with regard to the Internal Audit Report 21/03 on the review of the Ombudsman’s Data Protection Framework, that one action remained open in the fourth quarter of 2023 and, with regard to the internalInternal auditAudit reportReport 20/04 on the Ombudsman’s ICT security, that there were seven ongoing actions in 2023; invites the Ombudsman to keep the discharge authority updated as to the progress made in these matters;

Environment and sustainability

44. Welcomes the fact that, over the years, the Ombudsman has reduced its environmental footprint, in particular through the digitalisation of its processes, the removal of individual printers, the non-replacement of central processing units when they reach end of life, measures to make events more sustainable and the extensive use of videoconference systems to avoid missions; notes that, in terms of the environmental footprint of its buildings, the Ombudsman relies on the measures taken by the Parliament in its capacity as owner of the buildings; notes with satisfaction that both buildings where the Ombudsman has offices run on 100 % clean energy; welcomes the installation by the Parliament of solar panels, including on the Havel building in Strasbourg in 2024;

45. Notes that the Ombudsman continued to encourage sustainable mobility in 2023; welcomes, in this sense, the fact that the Ombudsman adopted a new mobility policy that provides for the payment of a flat-rate contribution to staff up to grade AST8/AD8AST 8/AD 8 who use sustainable modes of transport to get to work; notes further from the Questionnaire that the initiative whereby the Ombudsman provided bicycles for staff use during working hours was unsuccessful, as bicycles were hardly used during the trial period;

Interinstitutional cooperation

46. Welcomes the financial and administrative savings achieved through inter-institutional cooperation, in particular the wide-range of service-level agreements (SLAs) concluded with the Parliament and the Commission and the participation in interinstitutional procurement procedures; welcomes the formalisation of the collaboration between the Parliament and the Ombudsman in the field of cybersecurity through a revised inter-institutional agreement which provides a framework for the Parliament to continue providing solid cybersecurity support to the Ombudsman; notes further that in 2023 the Ombudsman signed a SLA with EPSO for the organisation of internal competitions;

47. Commends the Ombudsman for its good collaboration with OLAF,the ECAEuropean Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the Court and EPPOthe European Public Prosecutor’s Office which in 2023 took the form of meetings and exchanges of views on, for example, ways to improve the transparency and integrity of Union institutions or the Union’s oversight framework; recalls that the Ombudsman and OLAF have put in place a system to avoid duplication of investigations; notes from the Questionnaire that the Ombudsman and the EDPSEuropean Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) cooperate mainly on an ad-hocad hoc and informal basis aiming for a quick and efficient collaboration when needed; encourages the Ombudsman to work closely in cooperation with the other institutions and European Agencies;

48. Calls on the Ombudsman to establish a formalized annual dialogue with the European Parliament’s CONT and LIBE Committees,Committees (Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE)), ensuring systematic follow-up on institutional transparency, governance reforms and fundamental rights protection;

49. Recognises the importance of maintaining a high level of exchanges and coordination with the European Network of Ombudsmen (ENO); welcomes the organisation of the ENO annual conference with sessions on topics such as migration, artificial intelligence and ethics in public administration in 2023; notes with satisfaction that, through the query procedure, the Ombudsman assists ENO members in resolving investigations at national and regional level, whereas, in 2023, the Ombudsman concluded five queries originating from five Union Member States; commends the organisation of the ENO annual conference in 2023 as a valuable platform for dialogue on key issues influencing the activities of Ombudsmen across Europe;

Communication

51. Notes that the overall budget for communication and promotional activities (publications, event organisation, digital communicationcommunication, etc.) increased by 17,20 % from EUR 132 400 in 2022 to EUR 155 200 in 2023;

52. Welcomes the efforts of and actions taken by the Ombudsman in 2023 to raise citizens’ awareness about its role and the possibility of recourse to it in the event of maladministration by a Union institution; notes in this sense the communication campaigns carried out in 2023 around a series of videos presenting the Ombudsman’s work and explaining three of the key areas of its interventions, an explainer in the form of a scrollable story on the impact of the Ombudsman’s work over time and an access to documents guide; welcomes moreover the organisation of the ‘Award for Good Administration’ ceremony and the participation of the Ombudsman at the EU Open Day in Brussels and Strasbourg, where it hosted targeted stakeholder events with academics and think tanks, and at the European Youth Event in Strasbourg in 2023;

53. Recognises the efforts undertaken by the Ombudsman to provide transparent information and publish data (including statistics on its caseload) in an informative and user friendlyuser-friendly format on the Ombudsman website (although such data are not available in open format); welcomes the publication on the website of a timeline for all inquiries into complaints providing information about past and future milestones in each inquiry;

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54. Notes that the Ombudsman has social media accounts on Instagram, LinkedIn, X (ex-Twitter), where the number of followers and the engagement rates continued to grow in 2023; welcomes the participation of the Ombudsman in a pilot project led by the EDPS aimed at bringing Union institutions onto EU Voice and EU Video, which are two free, open-source social media networks, based on Mastodon software, allowing Union institutions to interact with the public by sharing texts, images, videos and podcasts.

ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT

The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

Date adopted

18.3.2025

Result of final vote

+:

–:

0:

27

1

1

Members present for the final vote

Georgios Aftias, Damian Boeselager, Gilles Boyer, Olivier Chastel, Caterina Chinnici, Tamás Deutsch, Dick Erixon, Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, Esteban González Pons, Niclas Herbst, Monika Hohlmeier, Virginie Joron, Kinga Kollár, Giuseppe Lupo, Marit Maij, Csaba Molnár, Fidias Panayiotou, Jacek Protas, Julien Sanchez, Jonas Sjöstedt, Carla Tavares, Tomáš Zdechovský

Substitutes present for the final vote

Terry Reintke, Bert-Jan Ruissen, Annamária Vicsek

Members under Rule 216(7) present for the final vote

Francisco Assis, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Gaetano Pedulla’, Georgiana Teodorescu

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL BY THE COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

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