Annual report 2002 - EOI

258 ANNUAL REPORT | 2002
mass-mailing campaigns submitted to the Ombudsman. Although the matter was outside
the mandate of the Ombudsman, a reply was sent to each E-mail mentioning the possibility
of petitioning the European Parliament.
Website developments
In October 2002, the euro-ombudsman website became one of the first EU websites to
make information available in the 12 languages of the applicant countries for EU membership.
Information about the European Ombudsman is now available in 24 languages on the
website.
Major new sections have been added to the euro-ombudsman website in 2002. In
December 2002, a new guide for citizens entitled “What can the European Ombudsman
do for you?” was added to the website in 11 languages. A letters and notes section was
created to make publicly available correspondence between the European Ombudsman
and the other EU institutions and bodies. This has enabled the Ombudsman to publish on
the website not only his letters to the European Parliament and the European Commission
on certain items of public interest, but also the replies that he has received from the
Presidents of those institutions. Other documents, such as the Ombudsman’s proposals for
Treaty changes, have also been added to this section of the website.
In March 2002, a section concerning age discrimination in recruitment was created. This
section principally contained the documents relating to the Ombudsman’s successful
efforts to ensure that the European Recruitment Office would not discriminate on the basis
of age in its recruitment procedures. In October 2002, two new sections were added to the
Ombudsman’s website. One concerned the misuse of data protection rules while the other
concerned the protection of data in the Ombudsman’s Office.
In order to ensure that the euro-ombudsman website stays at the forefront of EU websites,
the Office of the European Ombudsman has participated throughout 2002 in the work of
the Inter-Institutional Internet Editorial Committee (CEiii). In November 2002, the
meeting of the CEiii was hosted by the Office of the European Ombudsman in Strasbourg.
The Office of the European Ombudsman has also participated throughout the year in the
Internet Editorial Committee of the European Parliament.