De Palacio to fight bid to give Ombudsman right to probe Commissioners

Date: 01/02/01

By John Shelley

Loyola de Palacio says she will fight proposals that would make European Commissioners accountable to the EU citizens' watchdog in cases of suspected mismanagement.

The Union executive's vice-president says extending the European Ombudsman's powers to include the right to summon Commissioners before him to provide evidence would give a political role to the post that it was never meant to have when created in 1994.

Current Ombudsman Jacob Söderman wants the rules to be changed, saying that Commissioners, as heads of the EU's administration, should have the same obligation to testify as do their officials.

But De Palacio told the European Parliament last week that Commissioners have a political responsibility and empowering the Ombudsman to grill them would blur the line between good administration and politics.

"It's not that we Commissioners don't want to be subject to any control or supervision or that we want to be above the law," she said. "But a Commissioner is not a civil servant; it's up to the Parliament to directly control or scrutinise our actions."

Some MEPs have already condemned De Palacio's stance as an attempt by the Commission to escape increased scrutiny of its work.

"Commissioners can be responsible for administration just as civil servants can be responsible for playing politics," said British Liberal MEP Andrew Duff, a member of the Parliament's constitutional affairs committee. "I don't think the press and the public would appreciate the fine distinction that the Commissioner is trying to draw."

But other Parliament members warned that giving the Ombudsman such powers would be the thin end of a wedge that could lead to their also being obliged to come before him.

The proposal to make Commissioners give evidence is one of a series of measures pushed by Söderman currently being considered by MEPS.

The Ombudsman argues that in order to properly carry out his task of sniffing out cases of maladministration he must be given full access to secret documents. He also describes the restrictions currently placed on Commission staff who give evidence as 'unacceptable' because under existing rules a witness could be required to lie, for example to cover up a fraud, if he was instructed to do so by his superiors.

The rules should be changed, Söderman argues, so that Commission staff must give a 'complete and truthful' answer to any question he poses them.

De Palacio has offered a lukewarm response to all of Söderman's requests, saying there is no need to change the rules on access to documents because in reality the Ombudsman has never been refused a paper. And she says there could be grave legal difficulties in changing the rules on giving evidence.

Loyola de Palacio says she will fight proposals that would make European Commissioners accountable to the EU citizens' watchdog in cases of suspected mismanagement.