Ombudsman seeks €240k European post

The ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, is hoping to be a candidate for the post of European ombudsman and is in Strasbourg this week seeking the 40 signatures needed.

The job, which pays about €240,000 a year, involves dealing with more than 2,500 complaints a year from citizens and bodies dissatisfied with any of the EU institutions.

Dissatisfaction varies from refusal to give access to documents to complaints about payments to disappointed applicants for jobs in the EU’s service. The complaints are dealt with by a multilingual staff of about 60.

While the ombudsman cannot enforce his or her rulings, the institutions act on them in 80% of cases.

The current ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros from Greece, has held the office since 2003.

The new ombudsman will be appointed by the European Parliament with an open vote in July. Nominations need to be in by May 8 and the process tends to be very political, with strong lobbying by candidates.