News

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  Experts and European Ombudsmen, gathered by the Catalan Ombudsman, discuss in Barcelona the cost of energy and consumer protection

  The engineer specialized in renewable energy, Pep Salas, approaches the system of implementation of smart meters

  Organized in the framework of the NEON network of ombudsmen, the conference was attended by European Ombudsmen expert in this field

  Among the attendees, there were representatives of the suppliers and the Third Sector (non-profit social organizations)

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  Rafael Ribó, as President of the IOI-Europe, has met in Strasbourg with the European authorities on human rights

  Accompanied by the European Vice President of the IOI and Federal Ombudsman of Belgium, Catherine de Bruecker, Ribó has visited, among others, the European Commissioner for Human Rights
  
  
  

• The Catalan Ombudsman analyzes the independence of the Spanish judiciary and recommends that it not be used to solve political conflicts

  Report

  Human rights regression: Elected officials’ freedom of expression and the separation of powers in the kingdom of Spain

  The Catalan Ombudsman recommends the Spanish State to fully comply with the several international statements –GRECO, Venice Commission, and the United Nations–that called for reforms to guarantee the separation of powers.
   
  The institution sustains that criminal measures should be limited as much as possible to scenarios of violence, turmoil and in general, any true risk to the integrity of the State.
   
  The Catalan Ombudsman determines thatJudgment 42/2014of the Spanish Constitutional Court was the starting point for attributing legal effects to a parliamentary resolution of a merely political character. By changing this criterion, Judgment 42/2014 has allowed the prosecution of the members of the Presiding Committee of the Catalan Parliament.
   
  The institution alerts that an excessive intervention of criminal law in social and political sphere brings about a reduction of individual freedom and  the free exercise of the right to freedom of expression.
   
  The Catalan Ombudsman recalls that the Special Rapporteur of the UN, Pablo de Greiff, on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, states that Spain has not faced up to its past, or done sufficient justice.