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Diamandouros, P. Nikiforos --- "From maladministration to good administration: retrospective reflections on a ten-year journey" [2017] ELECD 893; in Hofmann, C.H. Herwig; Ziller, Jacques (eds), "Accountability in the EU" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 217

Book Title: Accountability in the EU

Editor(s): Hofmann, C.H. Herwig; Ziller, Jacques

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785367304

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: From maladministration to good administration: retrospective reflections on a ten-year journey

Author(s): Diamandouros, P. Nikiforos

Number of pages: 42

Abstract/Description:

This chapter has two main goals: first, to record retrospective reflections on my ten-year tenure as European Ombudsman and on my efforts to situate ‘good administration’ at the very centre of the European Union’s administrative culture. Second, to complement this account with some brief, general reflections concerning the nature of the European Ombudsman institution and the broader, systemic challenges and dilemmas, which, in my view, it faces diachronically, irrespective of individual incumbents. The chapter’s central intellectual argument is that ‘good administration’ should be conceptualized as a set of principles, which are distinct from legal rules and go beyond the minimum requirements prescribed by them. They are, more specifically, deeply informed by ethical considerations, are systematically driven by the search for fair solutions to citizens’ problems, and are meant to serve as guidelines for, inter alia, European Union civil servants in their daily contacts with citizens.