THE WEEK THAT WAS … (Feb. 4, 2013)

When the EU was launching the European Year of Citizens, it trumpeted the importance of the European Ombudsman. But what do we see: the EU Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), which recruits 1,500 Eurocrats a year – at the cost of €15.000 (!) per single official - had been found guilty of misadministration by the European Ombudsman for failing on nearly a third of the regulator’s proposals.

And what does the European Commission Vice-President for Administration Maroš Šefčovič (Slovakia) say in response to a MEP’s question on the subject: because of the “very specific field” of recruitment that “whenever feasible, therefore, EPSO complies with the Ombudsman's recommendations.” The Commissioner’s message is clear: the EU institutions can’t follow the ombudsman’s recommendations every time because they are not always feasible! Let’s hope that the European Citizens understand this.

A British MEP reacted: ‘This is exactly the kind of lack of democratic accountability that David Cameron was addressing in his speech on Europe. The EU institutions, including EPSO, must rise to the Prime Minister’s challenge to be leaner and less bureaucratic. This includes addressing all complaints of misadministration, not merely those which are ‘feasible’.

This week, two days before the Summit of European leaders in Brussels, EU civil servants are going to strike in a protest against plans to cut €15bn from the EU’s administrative budget. It seems that these Eurocrats don’t know about what has been happening the last years in the memberstates: less civil servants, lower wages, and not only in Greece and Spain. But don’t worry: no European Citizen will be aware of the strike. Not even in Brussels.