The position of European Ombudsman was established under the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. The Ombudsman is elected by secret by MEPs during the Strasbourg plenary session. He is elected for one parliamentary term (five years). The European Court of Justice may remove the Ombudsman from his position at the request of the European Parliament. This can only be done when there has been serious misconduct or when the Ombudsman no longer fulfils the conditions required to perform his duties correctly. The first person to be elected to the position was Jacob Söderman in 1995. The office of the Ombudsman is based in the Salvador de Madariaga Building in Strasbourg.
The Office of the Ombudsman is responsible for investigating EU Institutions such as the Parliament, the Commission and the Council. However, the Ombudsman does not have the power to investigate the Court of Justice, the General Court or the Civil Service Tribunal. Furthermore, the Ombudsman cannot investigate complaints made against national, regional or local administration in member states, even where the complaint is in relation to a European issue. Lodging a complaint with the European Ombudsman is a right granted under EU citizenship and can be done in any of the 23 official EU languages. Therefore, any EU citizen, resident of a member state or entity can request the Ombudsman to investigate an institution on the basis of abuse of power, unfairness, maladministration, refusal of information or unnecessary delay. In some instances the complaint made by a citizen can be quickly resolved. A solution may be reached by merely informing the institution of the issue in question.
Unfortunately, other cases are not as easily resolved as the Ombudsman has no powers to compel compliance with his or her decision. Despite this there is a high compliancy rate in most instances. In 2011 there was an 82% compliancy rate among the EU Institutions. Other EU bodies such as EU agencies had a 100% compliancy rate. However, the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) scored the lowest with a compliancy rate of only 69%. In total the European Ombudsman helped over 22,000 European citizens, companies, NGOs, and associations in 2011. Approximately seven complaints were made by Malta in 2011. This gave Malta the fourth highest complaint rate when equated to its population size. Luxembourg had the highest rate of complaints relative to its population, followed by Cyprus. Spain lodged the most complaints with 361, Germany followed with 308 and 223 from Poland.
In 2012 Malta submitted 14 complaints. As a result Malta ranked third in the list of complaints registered in 2012 relative to population size. The year 2012 saw a record number of complaints being dealt with by the Ombudsman. A total of 465 inquiries were opened in 2012. This constituted an 18% increase compared with 2011.
During the July plenary session in Strasbourg a new European Ombudsman was elected. There were six eligible candidates in this year's election including EPP MEP Ria Oomen-Ruitjen. However, it was an independent candidate, Emily O'Reilly who won the election. O'Reilly is the first female European Ombudsman. She is currently serving as the Irish National Ombudsman. Three rounds of votes were held in the July plenary session as no one candidate received the majority of MEP's votes. O'Reilly final won with a total of 359 votes against Ria Oomen-Ruitjen from the Netherlands who received 276 votes. She will take up her new position on October 1 as P.Nikiforos Diamandouros' successor after 10 years of service.
Under European Union law the Ombudsman must guarantee their independence. Prior to the election in the plenary session all six candidate were questioned by MEPs in a number of public hearings held by the Petitions Committee as to how they could ensure independence, visibility and transparency in the position. Independence and transparency are of the utmost important in such a position in order to adequately protect the rights of European citizens.