The European Ombudsman, champion of transparency

The European Ombudsman, an institution created in 1992 to guarantee citizens a right to good administration, is today known for his actions in favour of transparency within the European Union. However, this association between Ombudsman and transparency is not self-evident, especially if transparency is reduced to publicity. Unlike the institutional histories and testimonies of the Mediators, this article adopts a political sociology of institutions approach to explain how political and administrative mobilizations have made possible this identification between an institutional role and a standard of “good” governance.