News
The Catalan Ombudsman hosts the NEON General Meeting in Barcelona
The General Meeting of the NEON (National Energy Ombudsmen Network) took place today at the headquarters of the Catalan Ombudsman. Formed by members from Belgium, United Kingdom or Poland, for example, the network's main purpose is to exchange and deepen the management and resolution of energy and service complaints, and also to become a monitoring and pressure mechanism before regulatory bodies.
Today's meeting focused on internal issues such as the revision of the by-laws, the work plan and the election of officers, as well as issues of an open or external nature, such as the activities planned individually or by groups by its members.
The Barcelona meeting was attended by the President of the Neon, Janusz Gwiazdowski, Coordinator for Negotiations to the President of Energy Regulatory Office (Poland); the Vice President, Roberto Malaman, from the Italian Energy Regulatory Authority, and the Treasurer, Sabine Keirse, from the Energy Commission (Wallonia). The other attendees were Eric Houtman, from the Energy Mediation Service (Belgium); Ed Dodman, from the Ombudsman Services (United Kingdom); Tara O'beirne, from the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU, Ireland), and Salome Vardiashvili, an ombudsman for the energy and water sector.
NEON is the European network of independent, not-for-profit consumer dispute-resolution services and ombudsmen active in the energy sector. Their members have the public mandate to provide an easily-accessible and free-of-charge way to solve disputes between consumers and companies. Their main goal is to promote a specific model of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), based on independent, national and regional ADR services that defend the general interest and the rights of all consumers, including the most vulnerable ones. The network facilitates the exchange of information, experience and good practices among its members.
The Catalan Ombudsman has been a full member of NEON since 2012, and this is the third time that the Catalan ombudsman institution has hosted a network meeting in Barcelona.
