The Ombudsman's 2024 performance and spending review
Published April 29, 2026
Goal: Transparency and accountability
Community improvement
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This discharge is the European Parliament's official approval that the Ombudsman spent its money correctly, confirming that the office is doing a good job handling complaints and improving its services for EU citizens.
Document summary The source
What is a "Discharge"?
The European Parliament checks that EU institutions have spent money correctly and that their accounts are reliable. If the Parliament is satisfied, it grants a discharge, which is a formal approval allowing the institution to keep the money it spent. This document summarizes the Parliament's decision to grant the Ombudsman this approval for the 2024 budget year.
Financial Overview
The Ombudsman's budget is a very small fraction of the EU's total spending.
- Total Budget: The total budget for 2024 was €13.84 million, an increase of 4.8% compared to 2023.
- Spending Efficiency: The Ombudsman spent most of its money, but the spending rate was still below the 100% target.
- Key Spending Changes:
- Energy costs saw a significant increase of 75%.
- Communication and promotion budgets decreased by 38%.
- The office reported paying all invoices on time.
Key Achievements in 2024
The Ombudsman handled several areas of work and modernization in 2024:
- Complaints and Inquiries: The office received 2,264 new complaints and 411 new inquiries.
- Speed: The average time to handle a complaint dropped from 39 to 36 days.
- Digitalization:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) was used to translate the website, which cut translation costs by 65%.
- Historical archives were moved to Florence, and new AI tools were tested.
- Staffing and Diversity: The office employed 78 staff members (a 5% reduction from 2023). The staff maintained a high gender balance, with all senior posts held by women.
- Sustainability: Buildings are now run on 100% renewable electricity, and solar panels were installed.
Parliament's Observations
The Parliament provided several points for the Ombudsman to consider for the future:
- Spending Goals: The Ombudsman should continue working to reach a 100% spending rate and improve how quickly it spends money that is carried over from previous years.
- Cost Management: Due to the sharp rise in energy prices, the office needs to find ways to keep energy spending under control.
- Staffing: Since the office is shrinking, the Parliament suggested that increasing permanent contracts would help maintain institutional knowledge.
- Transparency: While the Ombudsman follows transparency principles, formally joining the EU transparency register would strengthen its credibility.
- Communication: Because the budget for outreach fell, the Ombudsman should reallocate savings to keep citizens informed about its work.
Contextual Analysis
This analysis offers additional insights into the background and potential impact of this document. It has been generated by Perplexity and rated 4 stars, synthesizing information from search results, recent articles, and commentary. You can view the analysis generated by other AI models:
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Broader Context
The discharge procedure is Parliament's yearly check on EU bodies' budget use, based on Court of Auditors reports, to ensure sound financial management—meaning economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. It covers all institutions under the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) heading "European public administration," where the Ombudsman's €13.84 million is just 0.1%. Parliament grants discharge if satisfied, as here on April 29, 2026, after CONT committee review. europarl.europa
Impact on People Living in the EU
EU citizens and residents can file free complaints with the European Ombudsman about maladministration by most EU institutions, like unfair treatment or secrecy. This approval confirms reliable handling of 2,264 complaints and 411 inquiries in 2024, with faster processing (36 days average). It supports better access to documents, ethics checks, and AI tools for quicker services in all EU languages. ombudsman.europa
This analysis offers additional insights into the background and potential impact of this document. It has been generated by Perplexity and rated 4 stars, synthesizing information from search results, recent articles, and commentary. You can view the analysis generated by other AI models:
ClaudeAI
Mistral
Broader Context
The discharge procedure is Parliament's yearly check on EU bodies' budget use, based on Court of Auditors reports, to ensure sound financial management—meaning economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. It covers all institutions under the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) heading "European public administration," where the Ombudsman's €13.84 million is just 0.1%. Parliament grants discharge if satisfied, as here on April 29, 2026, after CONT committee review. europarl.europa
Impact on People Living in the EU
EU citizens and residents can file free complaints with the European Ombudsman about maladministration by most EU institutions, like unfair treatment or secrecy. This approval confirms reliable handling of 2,264 complaints and 411 inquiries in 2024, with faster processing (36 days average). It supports better access to documents, ethics checks, and AI tools for quicker services in all EU languages. ombudsman.europa
Licensing: This article is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).