Ombudsman candidates jostle for poll position ahead of vote

Date: 09/01/03

By Martin Banks

A BRITISH MEP and the national ombudsman for Greece have emerged as favourites for the post of European Ombudsman.

Parliamentarians are due to vote in Strasbourg next week for the successor to Finn Jacob Söderman, who steps down in April.

Of the seven candidates, two are seen as the front-runners - UK Conservative MEP Roy Perry and Nikiforos Diamandouros.

Perry will be backed by the 233-strong centre-right European People's Party (EPP), Parliament's largest political group, while Diamandouros is expected to enjoy the support of the 180-strong Party of European Socialists (PES).

Both groups decided which man to endorse after candidates appeared before the Parliament's petitions committee in public hearings last month.

Perry, 59, deputy chairman of the petitions committee, is a former college lecturer and local council leader. He has been an MEP since 1994.

Diamandouros, 60, helped set up the office of national ombudsman in Greece four years ago. He is married with two sons.

The other five candidates are: Herman Wuyts and Pierre-Yves Monette, federal ombudsmen in Belgium; Georgios Anastassopoulos, Greek former MEP; Italian regional ombudsman Giuseppe Fortunato and Spaniard Xabier Markiegi, a former ombudsman in the Basque Country.

European Voice editor Dennis Abbott will chair a debate between the seven men before the vote, which is expected to take place on Tuesday (14 January). Five of the seven men have completed a wide-ranging questionnaire collated by the assembly's Campaign for Parliamentary Reform (CPR).

In his reply, Perry says the profile of the Ombudsman's job needs raising to ensure that EU citizens know how he can help.

"As well as building on the excellent website and existing publications, I believe the Ombudsman must be more proactive in relations with European parliamentarians, regional representatives and the media," he adds.

"The post needs a human face and above all must be known to elected representatives across Europe and by NGOs."

Diamandouros says enlargement of the EU in 2004 will mean a demanding job for whoever replaces Söderman.

"The challenge for the next Ombudsman will be how to manage to extend the rule of law, as we know it in the 15 member states, into the ten accession countries while at the same time addressing the major concerns of these more recent democracies."

In his reply to the CPR, Fortunato, ombudsman in Italy's Campania region, calls for a public register of all people working for MEPs to increase transparency.

Wuyts, 59, who has been in his current post for six years, disagrees with those who are calling for the Ombudsman to have the right to initiate court proceedings.

He said: "If that happened, the Ombudsman would become subject to a court decision. He should, however, help a complainant to do so."

Monette, a law professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, said transparency is the number one issue facing the next Ombudsman. He also said an awareness-raising campaign for the Ombudsman's job is "highly necessary".

A British MEP and the national ombudsman for Greece have emerged as favourites for the post of European Ombudsman.