#Ombudsman announces Award for Good Administration 2019 winners

Prizes in six other categories – including communications and open administration - were also awarded from a total of 54 nominations from across the EU administration.

The Award for Good Administration recognizes actions by the EU public administration that have a visible and direct positive impact on the lives of citizens.

“I am delighted to present the 2019 Award to the teams in DG Grow and DG Environment for their work on this issue,” said the Ombudsman.

“There is growing public consciousness about the devastating effects of climate breakdown and the need to change our everyday habits to protect the environment. The Commission’s plastics reduction strategy - executed by its internal market and environment directorates - is an excellent example of a public administration acting on citizens’ concerns.”

Category winners included Europol for its innovative project using crowd intelligence to help locate sexually exploited children, and EFSA for raising awareness about threats to bees. Staff from the European Parliament won a special award for their campaign, in the wake of the global #MeToo movement, on zero tolerance for workplace sexual harassment.

Nominations also included the making of applications for EU funding easier, presenting relatively new concepts - such as digital ethics - in innovative ways, introducing green policies internally, and proactively informing people of their EU rights.

The Ombudsman introduced the Award for Good Administration in 2017 to recognise excellence in EU public service and to encourage the sharing of good ideas and practice. This is the second edition of the award.

The nominations were assessed by an independent advisory board and the winners were chosen by the Ombudsman.

For a list of the winners in all categories, please see below or here.

Overall winners 2019

European Commission, DG Environment and DG GROW

A comprehensive strategy for reducing plastics pollution

And

European Commission, DG Environment

Awareness-raising campaign about single-use plastics

Excellence through collaboration

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

Raising awareness about the plight of bees

Excellence in citizen-focused services delivery

European Commission, DG EAC (Units B3 and R4)

DiscoverEU - Giving young people the chance to discover Europe

Excellence in open administration

European Commission, DC REGIO (Unit E1)

Integrity Pacts - Reducing corruption in public tenders

Excellence in innovation / transformation

Europol

Using crowd intelligence to rescue sexually exploited children

Excellence in communications (joint winners)

European Commission, DG JUST (unit D1)

Tailored toolkits for raising awareness about LGBTI rights

And

European Parliament, European Parliament Research Service

What has Europe ever done for us?

Special award

MeTooEP

Zero tolerance for sexual harassment in the workplace