20 Annual report 2011 In the period 20 to 22 October 2011, the Danish Ombudsman hosted the 8th National Seminar of the European Network of Ombudsmen with the support of Parliament. The seminar was entitled Law, politics and ombudsmen in the ­Lisbon era. The seminar was organised as part of the work carried out in the network of ombudsmen established around the European Ombudsman. Apart from the European Ombudsman himself, the collaboration in the Network, which was established in 1996, comprises the national and regional ombudsmen of the EU member states, Norway, Iceland and countries approved as applicant states. National and regional ombudsmen in the Network can ask the European Ombudsman for written replies to questions about EU law and its interpretation, ­including questions that arise in connection with their processing of specific cases. The members of the Network also regularly exchange information and experiences from their offices’ daily work. The individual institutions have appointed permanent contact persons. Every other year, the European Ombudsman or­ gan­ises meetings of these liaison officers. In addition, a seminar is ­organised every other year with participation of the ombudsmen themselves. These ­seminars are organised by the European Ombudsman in close collaboration with the national ombudsmen in turn. The seminar in Copenhagen in October 2011 was thus jointly organised by the European Ombudsman and the Danish Ombudsman. As part of the Network’s activities, the European Ombudsmen – ­Newsletter is published for exchange of information about EU law and best practice. It is issued twice a year in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. The newsletter offers ombudsmen a forum for explaining EU law cases which they have processed, for exchanging examples of case-handling practices which may be useful to other members of the Network and for keeping their ­colleagues ­informed about changes within their institutions. The newsletter is also a ­medium for the many members of the European Region of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) and contains a section devoted to the activities of the European Region of the IOI. The European Ombudsman provides an Extranet service with discussion ­forums and document sharing facilities to members of the European Network of Ombudsmen. The Extranet also contains an electronic news service, Ombudsman Daily News, which is published every working day and contains articles, press releases and announcements from the offices in the Network. In addition, the Extranet contains an up-to-date list of national and regional ­ombudsmen in the EU member states, applicant states and certain other European ­countries.