Reinier van Zutphen is certainly one of six candidates, from Estonia to Portugal, vying to switch Emily O’Reilly, who has been accountable for investigating maladministration amongst EU bureaucrats for greater than a decade.
“Sometimes I may be cussed, I’d say, however I feel most MEPs like this strategy.”
It is honest to say that Reinier van Zutphen has a direct strategy to soliciting votes for his candidacy as the following European Ombudsman.
He has been equally forthright in his present position as nationwide ombudsman within the Netherlands, the place he has not simply passively waited for complaints to come back in, however has, fairly actually, taken to the streets.
“I began with an enormous bus, driving throughout the nation, and now I’ve a pop-up kitchen; I am going to the province and put it there, and meet folks,” he stated.
“It’s not straightforward for regular folks, once they’re in bother, to discover a strategy to flip to the authorities or the ombudsman, so we should always open up and make issues simpler,” he stated.
He is certainly one of six candidates hoping to succeed Emily O’Reilly, the previous Irish journalist accountable for an investigation into maladministration within the EU establishments since 2013. To achieve favor with MEPs, he should combat off competitors from former officers of Parliament, Supreme Court judges and different nationwide ombudsmen.
“I at all times have respect, however I’m additionally direct,” he stated in an interview with Euronews, citing as his private motto: “Tell the reality, even when your voice trembles.”
This suggests he desires to comply with within the footsteps of O’Reilly, who has not been afraid to stir controversy.
In earlier circumstances, it criticized the appointment of the European Commission’s most senior official, Martin Selmayr, and investigated controversial communications between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the top of vaccine maker Pfizer.
Van Zutphen refers to his personal expertise responding to the floods in Limburg and the kid profit scandal which noticed welfare claimants falsely accused of fraud.
“Individual circumstances are the inspiration of the workplace,” he stated, “But the trendy ombudsman is rather more than simply taking up circumstances.”
This strategy brings him straight into the middle of an argument over the precise nature of the European Ombudsman’s position.
Some have complained that O’Reilly has taken too broad, if not a politicized, strategy.
In an op-ed written as a part of a bid for the publish in 2019, Estonian Supreme Court Justice Julia Laffranque – who may even run this yr – stated O’Reilly was “undermining the credibility and popularity” of her workplace transferring away from his position. path. Laffranque didn’t reply to Euronews’ questions on his 2024 candidacy.
Mario Fardelli, at present the Lazio area’s ombudsman, additionally informed Euronews that the workplace ought to function inside its authorized mandate and “give attention to resolving complaints and guaranteeing transparency”.
ANNOUNCEMENTVan Zutphen disagrees.
“I do know the lawyer strategy,” he stated, citing his judicial profession, however added that focusing solely on slender authorized duties “does not work for the ombudsman… that does not assist.”
Van Zutphen and the opposite 5 candidates will every have round an hour and 1 / 4 to current their proposal to MEPs on the listening to on 3 December in Parliament’s Petitions Committee.
But he dismisses complaints from among the different candidates about an opaque course of.
ANNOUNCEMENT“I knew what to do” to get the 39 signatures of MEPs wanted to clear the primary hurdle, which noticed him largely achieve the help of Parliament’s centrist coalition, he stated. “The roasting on December third will happen open air…I feel it is very clear.”
MEPs are sometimes involved about points akin to gender or geographic steadiness when awarding prestigious jobs; three of the candidates are girls and three are from Southern Europe.
But van Zutphen seems phlegmatic concerning the inevitable politics at play.
“There shall be some type of steadiness between this and that, you recognize… that is not an issue for me,” he stated.
ANNOUNCEMENT“As lengthy as the result is that I’m the one one, that is superb.”
