Award for Good Administration 2023

The 2023 European Ombudsman Award for Good Administration was a great success! Join us as we take a look back at the award ceremony that took place in the beautiful Solvay Library in Brussels on 28 June.

Through the presentation of 57 innovative projects, the ceremony was a celebration of work by EU public servants that has had a positive impact on people’s lives.

After introductory words by European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, eight awards were handed out to exemplary projects. There were winners in five specific categories such as open administration and citizen-oriented delivery, a public vote winner, a special award winner, and the 2023 overall winner.

The winners explained the work behind the projects—sometimes involving several different teams—and what it meant to win. Members of the advisory board also took to the stage to explain what they liked about the projects and how difficult it was to choose among them.

Thank you to everyone for showing such enthusiastic support for all the nominated projects during the award ceremony. And thank you for your commitment to public service and for making the EU stronger through your creative initiatives!

OVERALL WINNERS

Helping civil society document core international crimes

Eurojust and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

The Guidelines for Documenting International Crimes and Human Rights Violations for Criminal Accountability Purposes help civil society organisations collect and preserve information in a way that lets it become evidence in court.

“We would like to dedicate the award to all the human rights defenders who are on the ground, who are collecting information that can be used later on to prosecute those who commit these horrible atrocities.”

DG JUST, European Commission

SPECIAL AWARD

Working with children to produce a new EU strategy on the rights of the child

To design the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, the team at the Commission’s department for justice and consumers asked for input from children from across Europe and beyond. They also met with children after the strategy’s adoption to explain what was included and why.

“Children are one out of five EU citizens and with this project there were 10,000 children that were consulted to make a plan for children in Europe
with very concrete actions.”

Europol in cooperation with Polizia di Stato (Italy)

PUBLIC VOTE

Protecting EU recovery funds from organised crime and fraudsters

The Next Generation EU Law Enforcement Forum facilitates cooperation between EU Member States, EU institutions, and international organisations to protect EU COVID-19 recovery funds from falling into the hands of criminals.

“We’re working with the Member States, we’re working with third countries, trying to fight crime, and seeing that this is recognised by the public with this award, it means a lot for everyone back at Europol.”

CATEGORY WINNERS

Excellence in citizen-oriented delivery

Helping civil society document core international crimes - Eurojust and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

Excellence in communication

Showing EU solidarity with Ukraine - DG COMM, European Commission

"It was pure compassion, and the deep conviction that we are doing the right thing as Europeans and as civil servants that drove us to make all this information available. We wanted to help save lives and to give the opportunity to those in need to build their lives here in Europe."

Positive Action Programme for trainees with a disability - Council of the European Union

Excellence in diversity and inclusion

"We are really proud because, thanks to our trainees, we have become wiser as an organisation, and we have become even more accessible. Of course, we have had challenges because we realised how many things we should improve in terms on infrastructure, digital accessibility, and also mentality."

EU Digital COVID Certificate - DGs JUST, CNECT, SANTE, European Commission

Excellence in innovation

"We as European citizens have to be proud of what we reached as the certificate has become the best and most used solution for proof of vaccination, test, and recovery worldwide."

"We are speaking about 1.8 million projects coming from 125 different sources. It was a huge effort in bringing all this data in one single place so all EU citizens are able to browse all the projects and understand what the EU cohesion policy is doing for the cities, for the territories, and for them."

Kohesio: Discover EU projects in your region - DG REGIO, European Commission