The role of the European ombudsman in protecting the rights of EU citizens and ensuring the good governance of the institutional mechanism of the European Union

Abstract

Formulation of the problem. During the existence of the institution of the European Union Ombudsman, the level of trust of EU citizens in this body as an effective means of protecting the rights and freedoms of individuals and legal entities has significantly increased. This is evidenced by the fact that there is a significant annual increase in the number of cases submitted to the EU Ombudsman, as well as the importance of the issues in which he participates. Today, the EU faces new challenges due to the globalization policies pursued by most EU member states, labor migration and other global processes. In the new conditions, the protection of human rights acquires a fundamentally new meaning. Therefore, the question of the role of the EU Ombudsman in the process of protecting the rights of individuals and monitoring the activities of the authorities is very relevant. At present, it is necessary to reform this body, giving it a wider range of powers that would allow it to perform its tasks more effectively. The purpose of this article is to study the role of the EU Ombudsman in the process of protection of individual rights and control over the activities of the institutional mechanism, as well as the analysis of amendments to the Statute of the EU Ombudsman to increase his powers. Article’s main body. The article is devoted to the study of the history of the establishment of the Ombudsman institution with the definition of its legal status. The amendments to the Statute of the EU Ombudsman are analyzed to increase the scope of his powers, as for more than 20 years of activity, this body, without a real possibility to adopt binding acts, exercises “soft power” based on the idea of openness to eliminate violations. In this regard, possible changes to the Statute of the Ombudsman have been explored, which can range from minimal (eg informing the committee responsible instead of submitting a special report to the European Parliament) to more significant ones (including interference in cases involving considered by the Court of Justice). Considerable attention is paid to the practice of the European Ombudsman in ensuring the proper management of the institutional mechanism on the basis of the annual report. Conclusions. There is a problem of insufficient powers of the European Ombudsman, and therefore, this body is still under development, as evidenced by the adopted European Parliament resolution on amendments related to the growth of the legal status of the EU Ombudsman, in terms of the possibility of adopting mandatory decisions on access to information by EU citizens, as well as the EU Ombudsman’s direct ability to intervene in cases before the General Court.