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Síndic Ribó, as Chairman of IOI Europe, vindicates the ombudsman’s figure before the president of the Italian Republic
The síndic Rafael Ribó was welcomed in audience by Italian Republic president, Mr. Giorgio Napolitano, and conveyed to him the worry and distress regarding the planned suppression of the Italian local ombudsmen (Defensore Civici), whose budget items will be removed from 2011 on.
The President was very interested in this issue, and committed himself to carry out a monitoring on the subject.
Ribó, as International Ombudsman Institute’s President in Europe, travelled to Rome on January, 25 in order to attend the annual coordination meeting held by the Italian ombudsmen and to give them full support.
The key issue discussed at the meeting was the suppression of the local ombudsmen according to the 2010 budgetary law.
Despite the fact that a year’s extension has been given to fulfill this suppression, Italian local ombudsmen are deeply concerned about it since they consider this decision as a step backwards in defending people’s rights. Moreover, neither the ombudsman figure is spread equally among all the Italian regions not has Italy a national Ombudsman institution.
The síndic proposed several measures and performances to be adopted in such a situation, by which Italian ombudsmen coordination could get full IOI support.
