Thank you very much, Mr President.

Ombudsman institutions are important bodies to provide people with their individual access to human rights and fundamental freedoms.

I would like to make three points. First of all, I would like to mention that Mr Werner AMON, who was until recently the head of the Austrian delegation here in the Parliamentary Assembly, has been elected to one out of the three Ombudsman we have in Austria, the so-called Volksanwalts. As he was a long-standing parliamentarian, I'm quite sure that we will have very good cooperation between the Austrian Ombudsman institution, which is enacted for six years, and the Austrian Parliament. Of course, it's key that we also go through the conclusions of the reports we get from the Ombudsman. It's up to us to change laws or to change practices of administration where they don't work well.

The second point I wanted to make is just to remind you that the International Ombudsman Institution, which is the umbrella organisation of about 140 national and also regional Ombudsman institutions all over the world, also exists. I think that their work is so important because they could also provide other Ombudsman institutions in other regions of the world with support, with knowledge, with ideas on how to deal with their tasks.

If I think, for instance, in Latin American and Caribbean regions, these Ombudsman institutions are very often the very last peak for people when they seek access to human rights or justice. Also, in other countries where human rights are under pressure, and there are also some in our region as we know. I think it's important to foster these bodies, to foster these institutions and to give them also international support. I'm very proud that the IOI is based in Vienna. It's always great to have such an important institution in your home town.

Third of all, I wanted to also outline that it's so important to really allocate these institutions with the resources they need. On the one hand, personnel, because of course they have to do their work. When there is more pressure for human rights or rule of law or access to justice, the more resources in personnel they need. But it's also important -- and that's often up to us as parliamentarians -- to provide them with the necessary financial resources. They can also, for instance, advertise for their important work.

In Austria we have, I think, 30 minutes every Saturday afternoon, which is quite a good TV time, for the Austrian Ombudsman institution to present recent cases and to raise awareness in people's heads that there is a place where they can come to and address if they have problems like that. And third of all, it's also a question of accountability. It's up to us to take them seriously and to really foster their important work.

I want to thank Lord Richard BALFE for this report. I will, of course, support it. I just want to remind that it's often up to us to improve the quality of the important work that Ombudsman institutions do.

Thank you very much.