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The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, welcomes the European Commission's first Anti-Corruption Report and its recommendations to the various national administrations and invites the Commission to add a chapter on the performance of the EU administration to the next report.

Emily O'Reilly explained: "The EU administration has to live up to the very highest standards, especially when it comes to transparency, strict rules concerning conflicts of interest, and high integrity standards in the area of public procurement. In most of these areas, the EU institutions already have high standards in comparison to many national administrations. I encourage the Commission to take account of the forthcoming work of Transparency International on the integrity system of the EU institutions and to include the EU institutions in the next Anti-Corruption Report."

Complaints to the Ombudsman about ethical issues

On 3 February 2014, the Commission published its first EU-Anti-Corruption Report. It concluded that corruption costs the European economy around 120 billion Euro per year. The Commission points to problems in the various Member States regarding preventive and control mechanisms, efficient law enforcement, political integrity, and public procurement.

The European Ombudsman receives many complaints about the EU institutions themselves, for example about lack of transparency, alleged conflicts of interest, "revolving doors", and other ethical concerns. She is currently investigating the European Commission's handling of "revolving doors" cases. The Ombudsman has asked the Commission to answer a number of questions on this issue by 28 February in a letter which is available at: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/cases/correspondence.faces/en/52715/html.bookmark

The European Ombudsman investigates complaints about maladministration in the EU institutions and bodies. Any EU citizen, resident, or an enterprise or association in a Member State, can lodge a complaint with the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman offers a fast, flexible, and free means of solving problems with the EU administration. For more information: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu

For press inquiries: Ms Gundi Gadesmann, Deputy Head of the Communication Unit, tel.: +32 2 284 26 09, Twitter @EUombudsman