Luxembourgers overtook the Maltese as the biggest complainers, to the European Ombudsman last year.
Still on the podium, Maltese citizens and organisations in 2009 filed 25 applications, which may not sound like much and, in fact, as a country that figure places Malta fifth from last on the EU 27 league. However, when the size of the population is considered, only Luxembourg beats Malta with 29 complaints from a population of just over 440,000 compared to Malta's 413,00. In 2008, 36 complaints had been filed by citizens of Luxembourg.
The only two Maltese complaints highlighted by the Ombudsman in his annual report for 2009 involved alleged maladministration in the award of a tender to carry out renovation works at the office of the European Parliament in Valletta and another about arrangements for an EU recruitment competition held in Malta. In both cases, the EU Ombudsman did not find any impropriety by the EU institutions involved.
No details were given on the other Maltese complaints.
Overall, the Ombudsman received 3,098 complaints last year, as against 3,406 in 2008.
In most cases, the Ombudsman transferred the complaints to a competent body or gave advice on where to resort. However, he opened 339 inquiries and closed 318.
In total, he handled almost 5,000 complaints and information requests.
Most of the inquiries opened last year dealth with the European Commission (56 per cent), followed by the European Parliament, the European Personnel Selection Office, the Council and the European Court of Justice.
The Ombudsman was pleased to note that, in more than half of the cases (56 per cent), the institution concerned accepted a friendly solution or settled the matter. The number of cases in which critical remarks were made dropped from 44 in 2008 to 35 in 2009.
Germany filed the biggest number of complaints (413), followed by Spain (389), Poland (235) and France (235). The European Ombudsman can only investigate complaints about maladministration in EU institutions and bodies. Complaints about local maladministration are the competence of the Maltese Ombudsman.