In the report on the activities of the Ombudsman adopted today, the Committee on Petitions encourages the Ombudsman to promote good administration and communication on how citizens? can make use of their rights under EU law, especially through the European Network of Ombudsmen. The EP Rapporteur Dushana Zdravkova, (BG) highlighted the rise of admissible complaints and increase in the means of redress used by citizens on national, regional and local levels.

The Rapporteur said: Today's vote demonstrates our confidence in the work of the Ombudsman to strengthen citizens` trust in the European Union and its institutions. Only 9% of all inquiries dealt with by the Ombudsman in the last year concerned the
European Parliament. However, there is still room for improvement, due to the fact that the main types of alleged maladministration in these cases were lack of transparency, unfairness and abuse of powers?

The Network, which includes the Committee on Petitions and roughly 90 offices in 31 Countries, aims at facilitating the rapid transfer of complaints to the competent ombudsman or similar body. The main priorities of the European Ombudsman are to ensure that citizens' rights under EU law are respected at every level and that a high standard of performance of EU administration is ensured.

MEPs stress that EU bodies must have all necessary resources to ensure that citizens receive clear and timely responses to their enquiries, complaints and petitions. Following the increased powers of the Ombudsman, granted by the EP in April, he has acquired full access to EU documents during his inquiries and maximum support fromnational and international institutions.