A former journalist, O’Reilly was elected as European Ombudsman after becoming Ireland’s first female Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, as well as Commissioner for Environmental Information. In her conversation with Studio Europa, she reflected on the challenges that the EU institutions have faced since she took office in 2013: from the migration crisis and Brexit to COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As these challenges mount, the ombudsman believes that her main task is to make sure that the EU institutions’ concerns about geopolitical issues do not allow them to lose sight of key values such as accountability, transparency, and fundamental rights: “There has been almost a fever-like atmosphere in recent weeks with the EU Parliament elections. We are looking to the US, at Trump, we are looking at what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine, we are looking at China. So how the EU administration reacts in relation to that is obviously important for all of us, but how they are held accountable and embrace transparency is important for my office.”

It appears, however, that issues like ethics and the rule of law were not the focus of the latest European elections, despite extensive media coverage of Qatargate and other corruption scandals involving senior EU officials: “When Qatargate happened, that was an international story, partly because it was a very easy-to-understand story. It was cartoon-like corruption. If you imagine children drawing corruption, they would be drawing suitcases of money. But then the story moved on and nothing really happened in relation to court cases that might have risen out of it,” the ombudsman points out.

“The Parliament made some changes in relation to its rules, but the story died to a degree. People would ask me during the last year and a half, ‘Do you think this is going to play a role in the European elections?’ and I thought probably not because it no longer seemed to be an issue for media even within the EU. It depended on the member state. For example, in some countries like Denmark, with a high level of trust in their government and institutional barriers against corruption, it would’ve played in a particular way but in other countries, it wasn’t such a big deal. And if I go from the experience of my own country, Ireland, it wasn’t mentioned at all,” she continues.

Asked whether it indicates that the priorities of Europeans are shifting, the ombudsman admits that people are more concerned with everyday problems: “The issues that did come into play are the cost of living crisis, which still affects so many people across Europe,  and just the sense of general anxiety  following COVID, the fuel crisis, and the subsequent rise in living costs. I also think, as you saw with the rise in support for right-wing parties, the migration button was pressed. Although there was not just one election, there were 27 separate elections and in every country there are differences, I think migration did play a role in  every country’s election.”

Despite other issues taking centre-stage, earlier in April, the EU Parliament approved the creation of a new EU body for ethical standards. The future of this institution will largely depend on whether these standards will actually be enforced and not just declared, says the ombudsman: “It started off at a high level with various promises and commitments to do everything from forbidding MEPs from having second jobs to all sorts of transparency measures, but by the time it got through a divided parliament, a lot of those things were off the table. The test will be if outgoing MEPs take on new jobs, if they get involved in lobbying and so on. New transparency rules have been brought in for them and there are also new rules for the incoming MEPs, but are they going to be enforced? The EU and the EU Parliament are not short of rules, it’s whether they are enforced or not.”

As the EU elections showed a significant increase in young voters supporting far-right parties, especially in France and Germany, the ombudsman says it’s all about the narrative: “Why do people move to the right? Because sometimes the right, in particular the far-right, makes fairytale promises. Or they point to an enemy, and history has shown that there is always an enemy to be found somewhere.”

The ombudsman reminds that the outcomes of using this rhetoric can turn out to be far from a fairytale: “Look at Brexit, look at the promises that were made and the desperately negative outcomes that there have been for so many people. And where is accountability in that?”

Now the younger generation of Britons is paying the price: “One of the groups of people who were most affected by that were young people, in terms of their opportunities even to wander freely around Europe or go to college in Europe. We also see the devastation that was wreaked on small businesses. But people voted for it.” The day after the elections, the most googled question in Great Britain was “What is the EU?”, noted the ombudsman.