Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/60957
Title: The European Ombudsman : legal basis, remedies and major achievements
Authors: Bezzina, Mandy Jane
Keywords: European Union
Ombudspersons
Ombudspersons -- European Union countries
Issue Date: 2001
Citation: Bezzina, M. J. (2001). The European Ombudsman : legal basis, remedies and major achievements (Master's dissertation).
Abstract: This thesis starts with a brief overview on the office of the Ombudsman, its origins and how it spread across Europe and then across most other countries around the world. The purpose of this concise description is to familiarise oneself with this office, and to facilitate the understanding of the office of the European Ombudsman. The first Chapter gives a detailed analysis of the purposes that motivated the Member States to create an Ombudsman for the European Union. The changing state of affairs within the Union and the amendments that were made to the EC Treaty, which were necessitated by the setting up of this office, are described. All the steps that led to the establishment of this office are traced in detail. This is followed by a brief discussion of the different legal instruments that regulate the Ombudsman's workings. The EC Treaty and Statute provisions lay down the ·criteria, called the admissibility criteria, which must exist in order for the Ombudsman to have competence to investigate a complaint. To this effect, the second Chapter firstly analyses the qualifications found in the Statute that a complaint must have for this investigation to take place. An in-depth examination of the extent of the Ombudsman's mandate is made. Specific emphasis is made on the definition of the term Maladministration, which is an admissibility criterion. Subsequently, the criteria imposed by the Treaty are discussed at length. Once a complaint is determined to be admissible, an investigation into the facts of the complaint is opened. The procedural steps that must be followed by the Ombudsman and his staff are laid down in the law, specifically the Statute and the Implementing Provisions. Chapter 3 analyses how an investigation should be conducted, and the procedural rights of the parties that must be respected are also discussed. The manner in which the Ombudsman's work is publicised is reviewed. The Chapter then ends with an illustration and explanation of the different conclusions that can be reached by the Ombudsman after each inquiry. Chapter 4 examines the investigative powers of the Ombudsman in detail. The different authorities that can be subjected to these powers, as well as the varying extent of these powersdepending on which body they are exercised is examined. Following this, an overview of the restrictions and limitations of the Ombudsman's investigative powers, and the drawbacks of the same, is given. Finally, the power to conduct own initiative inquiries, which is one of the investigative powers of the Ombudsman, is discussed. For completion's sake, it was considered opportune to describe, in Chapter 5, those Community bodies, which, in addition to the Ombudsman, are available to the citizens and, similar to the Ombudsman, are also destined to offer redress to the citizens, with particular reference to the co-operation between them. The subsequent Chapter makes observations on the limitations of the Ombudsman's competencies. The lack of methods of enforcement of his decisions, and the techniques he has developed to offset this, along with other deficiencies, are discussed. The concluding Chapter highlights the successes of the Ombudsman, namely in the field of good administration, with particular reference to the creation of a Code of Good Administrative Behaviour, as well as in the field of openness with in-depth analysis of the own initiative inquiry into the public access of Community held documents. Finally, I have dedicated the last part of my thesis to portray the Ombudsman as an evolving concept. After having stated the tasks envisaged to be fulfilled by him, I proceeded to outline the accomplishments of the Ombudsman, that go over and above those that were set out in his original agenda. Here I discussed the achievements of the European Ombudsman through the development of norms that regulate administrative practices, known as soft law. This Section analyses tile successes achieved through the use of, and formulation of, soft law. The fields I chose to analyse that show the Ombudsman's improvements brought about by the use of soft law, were the manner that Article 226 EC complaints are dealt with, as well as the field of Community Contracting.
Description: LL.D.
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/60957
Appears in Collections:Dissertations - FacLaw - 1958-2009

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