Glossary of Institutions, policies and enlargement of the European Union
(Starting with "O")
©
European Communities, 1995-2007
http://europa.eu/scadplus/glossary/index_en.htm
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OLAF
(European Anti-fraud Office)
The European Anti-Fraud Office has
been responsible since 1 June 1999 for combating fraud
against the European Union budget.
Created by a European Commission Decision,
OLAF replaced the Anti-Fraud Coordination Unit (UCLAF),
created in 1988 with a mandate limited to the European
Commission.
The new Office investigates the management
and financing of all the Union's institutions and
bodies with absolute operational independence. This
independence is guaranteed by:
- the Director of OLAF: appointed
in agreement with Parliament, the Commission and
the Council, he is able to appeal before the Court
of Justice of the European Communities to protect
his independence. Moreover, he can launch an investigation
not only at the request of the institution, body
or Member State concerned, but also on his own initiative;
- OLAF's Supervisory Committee: responsible
for monitoring the investigative function, it comprises
five independent outside persons appointed jointly
by Parliament, the Commission and the Council.
The arrangements for the internal
investigations carried out by OLAF in order to combat
fraud, corruption and other illegal activities which
harm the financial interests of the European Communities
were laid down in an interinstitutional agreement
of May 1999 between Parliament, the Council and the
Commission. This agreement extends the powers of the
Office to include serious cases of professional misconduct
by officials and other servants with disciplinary
or penal consequences. Several regulations deal with
the notification of irregularities and the recovery
of sums wrongly paid. Other regulations lay down the
procedure for investigations and operations, as well
as in situ checks.
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Ombudsman
The position of Ombudsman was established
by the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht, 1992)
to ensure sound administration and administrative
transparency at EU institutional level.
The Ombudsman is appointed by the
European Parliament after each election for the duration
of Parliament's term of office (five years).
He is empowered to receive complaints
from any citizen of the Union or any natural or legal
person residing in a Member State concerning instances
of maladministration in the activities of the Community
institutions or bodies (with the exception of the
Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance).
For example, complaints may be based on lack or denial
of access to information, on unjustified administrative
delay, on unfairness or discrimination, or on lack
of transparency.
The Ombudsman can open an investigation
on his own initiative or following a complaint. Complaints
can be submitted to the Ombudsman directly or through
a Member of the European Parliament.
Where the Ombudsman establishes an
instance of maladministration he refers the matter
to the institution concerned, conducts an investigation,
seeks a solution to redress the problem and, if necessary,
submits draft recommendations to which the institution
is required to reply in the form of a detailed opinion
within three months. If the institution concerned
does not agree to the proposed recommendations, the
Ombudsman may in no case mandate a solution. However,
he will be able to submit a special report on the
question to the European Parliament so that it can
take the appropriate measures.
Every year, the Ombudsman gives the
European Parliament a report on all his investigations.
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Open
method of coordination
The open method of coordination (OMC),
created as part of employment policy and the Luxembourg
process, has been defined as an instrument of the
Lisbon strategy (2000).
The OMC provides a new framework for
cooperation between the Member States, whose national
policies can thus be directed towards certain common
objectives. Under this intergovernmental method, the
Member States are evaluated by one another (peer pressure),
with the Commission's role being limited to surveillance.
The European Parliament and the Court of Justice play
virtually no part in the OMC process.
The open method of coordination takes
place in areas which fall within the competence of
the Member States, such as employment, social protection,
social inclusion, education, youth and training.
It is based principally on:
- jointly identifying and defining
objectives to be achieved (adopted by the Council);
- jointly established measuring instruments
(statistics, indicators, guidelines);
- benchmarking, i.e. comparison of
the Member States' performance and exchange of best
practices (monitored by the Commission).
Depending on the areas concerned,
the OMC involves so-called "soft law" measures which
are binding on the Member States in varying degrees
but which never take the form of directives, regulations
or decisions. Thus, in the context of the Lisbon strategy,
the OMC requires the Member States to draw up national
reform plans and to forward them to the Commission.
However, youth policy does not entail the setting
of targets, and it is up to the Member States to decide
on objectives without the need for any European-level
coordination of national action plans.
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Opting
out
Opting out is an exemption granted
to a country that does not wish to join the other
Member States in a particular area of Community cooperation
as a way of avoiding a general stalemate. The United
Kingdom, for instance, did not wish to take part in
the third stage of economic and monetary union (EMU)
and similar clauses were agreed with Denmark as regards
EMU, defence and European citizenship. The Schengen
acquis has similarly been adopted only partially,
as Ireland, the United Kingdom and Denmark can decide
on a case-by-case basis whether or not to participate
fully or only partially in the planned measures.
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Outermost
regions
There are seven "outermost regions":
Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique and Réunion
(the four French overseas departments), the Canaries
(Spain), and the Azores and Madeira (Portugal). Those
regions are distinguished by their low population
density and considerable distance from mainland Europe.
Their specific location makes them European bridgeheads
for fostering trade relations with their non-EU neighbours,
most of whom are less-developed countries. Above all,
on account of those regions, the maritime territory
of the European Union is the world's largest with
an economic zone covering 25 million km².
The outermost regions are the subject
of a Declaration annexed to the EC Treaty and may
benefit from specific measures on the basis of Article
299 of that Treaty. This Declaration acknowledges
their considerable structural backwardness. The Declaration
provides for the possibility of adopting specific
measures to assist them as long as there is an objective
need to promote their economic and social development.
In addition, Article 299 of the Treaty authorises
the Council to adopt specific measures laying down
conditions for applying the Treaty and common policies
to the outermost regions.
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Own
resources
Originally, the Community budget depended
on the Member States' financial contributions.
Under a decision adopted on 21 April
1970, the Member States' contributions were replaced
by own resources. These are transfers made by the
Member States to the Community budget to cover EU
expenditure. The fact that the Community budget is
funded from own resources makes the EU financially
independent.
The combined total of all own resources
may not currently exceed 1.24% of the aggregate gross
national income (GNI) of the Member States. There
are four types of own resource:
- Agricultural duties and sugar levies:
these consist mainly of the customs duties on imports
from non-Community countries of agricultural produce
subject to common organisation of the market and
levies on sugar, isoglucose and inulin syrup.
- Customs duties: these arise from
application of the common customs tariff and are
collected on imports from third countries at the
external borders.
These two resources are what are termed
the "traditional own resources".
- The VAT resource: this arises from
the application of a uniform percentage rate to
the VAT base of each Member State. This rate was
reduced to 0.50% in 2004. For all Member States,
it is applied to a base capped at 50% of GNP.
- The resource based on gross national
income (the "fourth resource"): introduced in 1988,
this is an "additional" resource, because it is
set according to the other three sources of budget
revenue. A uniform percentage rate is applied to
the total GNI of all the Member States, under the
budget procedure.
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