Justicia > Acciones legales > Is the Ombudsman protecting the European Commission?

Is the Ombudsman protecting the European Commission?

Photo: Justice - European Commission

After waiting nine months for a sign of progress, EPAW is wondering if the European Ombudsman is not buying time to help the defendant, in this case the EU Administration. This would be in clear violation of Article 9 of the Aarhus Convention, which guarantees a basic EU citizens' right: access to justice.

It also invites questions as to the role of the EU Ombudsman. Does the institution serve a real purpose, or is it just there to make believe citizens' rights are being protected?

The Aarhus Convention is supposed to protect the public against government or private sector attacks on the environment --> The Aarhus Convention: an implementation guide
In the EU, governments are destroying the environment on a large scale and ignoring the Convention. They are effectively encouraged by Brussels, and so far the Ombudsman is not helping correct the situation. We wrote a letter to him, which we reproduce below:

Dear Sirs,

We have received no news on the status of our complaint since your email of April 15th below, but in fact there does not seem to have been any progress since we submitted on December 18th 2012 our reply to the European Commission's allegations. It's been nine months, and we are starting to wonder: are the rights of citizens, and groups that represent them, being forgotten by the Ombudsman?

By the way, the draft ruling on UNECE Communication ACCC/C/2012/68 has now been pronounced and published, where the UK and the EU are both found to be at fault. The EU was found so for the second time, by the ACCC referring to its earlier ruling on ACCC/C/2010/54, in which the EU was declared to be non-compliant with Article 7 of the Convention with respect to the implementation of the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP), and with article 6, paragraphs 3, 4 and 8.
www.unece.org/env/pp/compliance/compliancecommittee/68tableeuuk.html
www.unece.org/env/pp/compliance/Compliancecommittee/54TableEU.html

We trust you will recognise the competence of the legal experts from the ACCC, whose findings are often being quoted by the European Court of Justice as well as judges of the National Courts.

Yours, sincerely

Mark Duchamp   +34 693 643 736
Executive Director, EPAW
www.epaw.org

Here below is the letter we sent to the Ombudsman on December 18th 2012.

Note: there has been no progress since then - nothing more than an aknowledgement of receipt after we insisted on March 31st. The acknowledgement was accompanied by these words: “Your complaint is currently awaiting examination with an eye to the next steps and, whilst it was regrettably not yet possible to conclude this stage, we are doing our best to do so and will inform you as soon as any new developments in this respect occur.” April 15th 2013

Dear Sirs,

Please find attached our response to the reply from the EU Commission dated Dec. 4th, 2012.
It is the pdf attachment nº4.

Yours, sincerely

Mark Duchamp   +34 693 643 736
Executive Director, EPAW
www.epaw.org

Attachment 1: a184830.pdf

Attachment 2: a184831.pdf

Attachment 3: Order_of_the_High_Court_12th_November_2012.pdf

Attachment 4: EPAW_to_EU_Ombudsman_1892-2012-VL_ in_response_to_EU_Commission_s_reply...