{"id":404985,"date":"2024-11-15T17:52:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T16:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/11\/15\/italiani-mediatore-ue-decapitani-fardelli\/"},"modified":"2024-11-21T13:08:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T12:08:03","slug":"who-are-the-two-italians-vying-for-the-post-of-european-ombudsman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/11\/15\/who-are-the-two-italians-vying-for-the-post-of-european-ombudsman\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are the two Italians vying for the post of European Ombudsman"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS – In the EU capital, all eyes are on the increasingly complicated process<\/a> of forming the new College of European Commissioners, which is expected to close with a vote by the EU Parliament in its plenary session Nov. 26\u201328. However, the following month, the Strasbourg Chamber\u00a0will be called upon to vote on the leadership of another institution. Among the six candidates vying to succeed Irish Emily O’Reilly in the role of European Ombudsman<\/strong>, there are also two Italians:\u00a0Emilio De Capitani <\/strong>and Marino Fardelli<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Established by the treaties and in office since 1995, the European Ombudsman<\/a> is the figure who deals primarily with\u00a0cases of maladministration involving other EU bodies and institutions<\/strong>. More broadly, he watches over accountability and transparency in the control rooms of the European capital. The Ombudsman, elected by the European Parliament, is empowered to set up independent investigations but has no sanctioning powers. As it has repeatedly done<\/a> in recent years O’Reilly,\u00a0from the Qatargate scandal to the controversial EU-Tunisia Memorandum of Understanding<\/strong> via the work of the EU Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), it can nevertheless make recommendations with some political impact.<\/p>\n

By the October 30 deadline, only six would-be Ombudsmen managed to collect the 39 signatures of MEPs from at least two member countries<\/strong> needed for official candidacy. Portugal’s Teresa Anjinho<\/strong>, former Deputy Attorney General for Justice in Lisbon and a member of the Supervisory Committee of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), former Estonian Supreme Court Justice Julia Laffranque<\/strong>, the Ombudsman of the Netherlands Reinier van Zutphen<\/strong>, the Austrian academic independent expert at the UN Human Rights Council Claudia Mahler<\/strong>, and the two Italians, De Capitani and Fardelli, who come from two very different backgrounds. The former, a lawyer and academic with a long career as an official in the European Parliament, the latter a councillor\u2014at first local and then regional\u2014in Lazio, since 2021, Ombudsman of the Lazio region and President of the National Network of Ombudsmen of Italian regions. All six are due to attend a hearing at the EU Parliaments’s Petitions Committee (PETI) on December 3<\/strong>, the last and crucial step before the final vote in the plenary session from December 15 to 18.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Emilio De Capitani<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before that appointment, De Capitani is preparing a kind of political manifesto. “If I am elected or not, at least I am sending the message,” he declares to Eunews<\/em>. The former executive of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Commission (LIBE) secretariat from 1998 to 2011 will leverage his\u00a0deep knowledge of the European machine<\/strong>: “I’ve been working there for 40 years, I know its meanderings and I’ve followed its evolution.” What moved De Capitani to run for office is, more than anything else, the battle for transparency, “the best system to protect the decision-making process.” The figure from which he starts is glaring: “Thirty per cent of the cases raised by the Ombudsman concern problems of access to documents.”<\/p>\n

For De Capitani, the key lies in fully “valuing” the 60,000 or so officials of the European institutions. “If I were appointed, the first thing I would do would be\u00a0seek out officials, create workshops to exchange good practices<\/strong>“, and foster a real culture of transparency. What the EU Ombudsman lacks today is also a major role in the standard-setting process<\/strong>: in addition to investigating instances of maladministration, “he could also make suggestions for doing good administration,” De Capitani further suggests.<\/p>\n

\"Marino<\/a>
Marino Fardelli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reached by Eunews<\/em>, the Lazio Ombudsman also indicates his mission: “To build a Europe that is even closer to citizens, fair and transparent.” For Marino Fardelli, the emphasis is mainly on the first term: the need to bring citizens closer to an institution that is there to protect them<\/strong>. “In my proposal, I emphasize communication, that is, conveying the message of the EU Ombudsman not only to stakeholders but to all citizens.” Especially the younger ones, as Fardelli is already committed to a project with the Lazio schools named “The Ombudsman on the school desks”.<\/p>\n

Even Fardelli draws ideas and proposals to strengthen the role of the Ombudsman from the skills acquired in his career.\u00a0One among all is the opportunity for<\/span>\u00a0“greater interaction with the national networks of Ombudsmen<\/strong>,” to be implemented with\u00a0<\/span>ad hoc<\/em>\u00a0conferences not only in Brussels and Strasbourg but, why not, in the European Capitals of Culture designated each year by the European Commission.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Fardelli finally touches on\u00a0the lack of respect for\u00a0the Ombudsman’s power to intervene: “Why not try to have an instrument of sanction against failing institutions<\/strong>? To date, there is not.” The Latium ombudsman, if elected, will try to readjust the terms of the equation: “The latest amendment to the statute focuses so much on transparency: all well and good, but you have to have sanctioning power.”<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emilio de Capitani and Marino Fardelli are among the six who gathered enough signatures among MEPs to succeed Emily O’Reilly of Ireland. The EU Parliament will elect the new EU Ombudsman during its December plenary session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":404742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[29695,29700,27064,29697,27495],"class_list":["post-404985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-emilio-de-capitani-en","tag-emily-oreilly-en-3","tag-ombudsmanand","tag-marino-fardelli-en","tag-ombudsman-europeo-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404985"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":405028,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404985\/revisions\/405028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}