EU: Prodi attacks European Ombudsman (feature)

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A quite extraordinary row broke out in March when Mr Prodi, President of the European Commission, launched an attack on Mr Söderman, the European Ombudsman for airing his views in public on the proposed new measure on public access to EU documents. The proposed "Regulation" on public access was drafted and adopted by the Commission without any public consultation process, even though they had over two years to do it. The proposal has to be agreed by the Commission, the Council (the 15 EU member states and the European Parliament.

Mr Söderman wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal Europe on 24 February which repeated the arguments he had made publicly to the "Convention" (the body) drafting the Charter on Fundamental Rights. In the article Mr Söderman said that, after the fiasco of the resignation of the Commission in 1999, one would have expected "less secrecy" and "more transparency, more accountability". Instead:

"When the Prodi Commission released its (secretly drafted) proposal to the public a few weeks ago, no commissioner was present to defend its merits - no surprise, considering how few it has."

Mr Söderman was particularly critical of the Commission's proposal to permanently exclude many documents from access and the idea of introduced new "exceptions" such as "the deliberations and effective functioning of the institutions." The effect he says would be that:

"there won't be a document in the EU's possession that couldn't legally be withheld from public scrutiny... "the list of exceptions from access [is] without precedent in the modern world."

Mr Söderman's article would probably have got little attention but the reply by Mr Prodi in the same paper on 9 March. Mr Prodi tried to claim there had been public consultation - which solely consisted of a conference held in the European Parliament organised by the Green Group of MEPs, the Socialist Group on MEPs, the European Liberal and Radical MEPs (ELDR), the European Federation of Journalists and Statewatch. At this conference where the draft measure, which had been leaked to Statewatch beforehand, was roundly criticised. As to the general arguments it is hard to believe that Mr Prodi understands the issues (see Statewatch, vol 10 no 1). For example, he says: "withholding documents would very much be the exception" - which can only mean he does not grasp the effect of defining out of the right of access to most documents and extending the number of exceptions.

But what really brought the disagreement between these two senior EU officials to public attention was the fact that Mr Prodi chose to write, on 3 March, to the President of the European Parliament to complain about Mr Söderman. Mr Prodi said that Mr Söderman's article was "polemic and extreme", "ill-informed" and "emotional and serious erroneous". He went on to express:

"the concern of the entire body of commissioners in regard to what it views as a questionable use of his functions."

Mr Prodi was in effect hinting that the European Parliament, which had appointed Mr Söderman, should think again.

Mr Prodi's view expresses a worrying attitude not just to the Ombudsman but also to democracy and the separation of powers. In the letter he speaks of the need for "loyal cooperation between institutions" and says Mr Söderman's action was "extremely detrimental to the normal functioning of the institutions."

Mr Söderman sent a reply to the President of the European Parliament, Mme Nicole Fontaine, on 14 March, strongly defending his right to speak out publicly especially on this issue. He said that when taking up his post "I have sworn to perform my duties with complete independence.. the Statute of the Ombudsman forbids me to accept instructions from any government or other body."

His letter reiterated the points made in his press article and particularly criticised the "unnecessarily general terms" in which the "Regulation" had been drafted, the:

"applica

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