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UK-EU: Football supporters' complaints not upheld but EuropeanOmbudsman sets up inquiry

01 March 1997

The European Ombudsman has set up an "own-initiative inquiry" into the way that the European Commission handles complaints regarding Article 169 of the Treaty on the European Community (TEC). Mr Söderman says:

"it appears that the procedure currently used by the Commission causes considerable dissatisfaction amongst European citizens. The procedure appears not to promote the degree of transparency which European citizens increasingly expect in the functioning of Community institutions and bodies."

The Ombudsman found that there "is no evidence of maladministration" on the part of the Commission on four complaints lodged by Liberty on behalf of Alun, Rhys and Gwilym Boore - three Welsh football fans who found themselves caught up in a bizarre series of events which involved trying to get their names removed from police databases in the UK and Belgium (see Statewatch, vol 3 no 2, vol 4 no 5, vol 5 no 5, vol 6 no 4). The Ombudsman's conclusion states:

"The Commission has obtained both from the UK and Belgium assurances that the rights of the complainants to free movement will be respected.."

In a useful precedent Liberty had sought to get the European Commission to open infringement proceedings against the UK and Belgium under Article 169 of the EC Treaty.