Activities 1.8 International Contacts Conference of European Ombudsmen, Vienna June 11 – 13, 2006 In June 2006, the Ombudsman Board, together with the International Ombudsman Institute (I.O.I.), the world’s largest association of ombudsmen, held a two-day conference, which took place in Vienna, in the parliament building premises. International conference in Vienna 140 ombudsmen and delegates of ombudsman institutions from 45 Member States of the Council of Europe took part in it. Initially, Prof. Kucsko-Stadlmayer (University of Vienna) presented the first results of the comparative study on the European parliamentary ombudsman institutions. In addition to a great deal of detailed information (see the I.O.I homepage http://www.ioieurope.org operated by the Ombudsman Board), it primarily emerges from this study that all Member States of the Council of Europe have national and/or regional ombudsman institutions. The ombudsman is therefore the absolute norm in a European constitution. In plenary discussions and working groups, the topics of 'Ombudsman and jurisdiction' and 'The implementation of human rights in Europe' were both particularly debated. Many thanks are owed to the speakers, Ombudsman Kochanowski (Poland), Ombudsman Melin (Sweden), the Chief Magistrate of the Austrian Supreme Court of Justice, Dr. Griss, the Commissioner for Human Rights, Hammarberg, and the ombudsmen, Fischbach (Luxembourg), Kaminis (Greece) and Abraham (United Kingdom). This event was also particularly distinguished by the fact that it was opened by Austrian Federal President, Dr. Heinz Fischer. Many thanks are also owed to the President of the National Council, Prof. Khol, not only for his words of greeting, but also the generous support by the parliament and the employees of the parliamentary office, without whom this event would not have been possible. The financial support by the Federal State of Vienna and many private companies not only facilitated the exchange of experiences and discussion between the European ombudsmen, but also contributed to them becoming more familiar with one another. All lectures and discussion contributions for the plenary meetings have been published in a conference report, and are available on the homepage of IOI Europe at http://www.ioi-europe.org. 19