President Drnovšek meets European human rights Ombudsman
Ljubljana, 01/27/2004 | press release
President Drnovšek today received the European Ombudsman Mr Nikoforos Diamandouros, who visited Slovenia as part of a tour of the future European Union member states. He opened their meeting by saying that his work included close cooperation with the national human rights ombudsmen, whom he met at regular biannual meetings. Mr Diamandouros went on to stress that he wanted his visits to these countries to be an opportunity to inform the public that the European Ombudsman was an institution that citizens of the European Union could turn to if EU institutions did not function as they should. He went on to point out the importance of adopting a constitution for the European Union that would include a chapter on human rights.
President Drnovšek presented a proposal that the new constitution should formalise the present informal cooperation between the European Ombudsman and national ombudsmen. The President and Mr Diamandouros agreed that this would strengthen the role of the human rights ombudsman and allow people to use human rights ombudsman in addition to other official routes in the case of maladministration. President Drnovšek expressed his hope that the EU constitution would be adopted quickly and informed Mr Diamandouros of various bilateral discussions on the EU constitution he had held at recent forums in Berlin and Davos.
Mr Diamandouros closed by stressing that the fact that states permitted the existence of institutions protecting citizens against maladministration by state institutions was a mark of a true modern democracy. He then informed the Slovenian President of the publication entitled “European Union Ombudsman Newsletter” and the annual ombudsman’s report, which will also be available in Slovene in 2003.
President Drnovšek thanked Mr Diamandouros and wished him every success in the future.