In 1951, six countries established the European Coal and Steel Community: Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. This international community later became what we know today as the European Union by the Maastricht Treaty, which entered into force in 1993. The European Union is an international community of sui generis, and Member States have often been forced to find new, innovative solutions to some of the problems that existed or that could have potentially existed at European Union level. One of the emerging problems was also how to protect citizens' rights when they are indirect or direct relation to with the bodies and institutions of the European Union. This problem was resolved by the aforementioned Maastricht Treaty in such a way that a decision on the appointment of the European Union Ombudsman was taken. The first Ombudsman was appointed to office in 1995. The Ombudsman of the European Union monitors the work of certain institutions and bodies of the European Union and their officials, and examines the substantive and procedural legality, regularity, reasonableness and effectiveness of their decisions. It usually acts on the basis of complaints from the citizens, but there are also cases where it examines the lawfulness of the actions of bodies and institutions on its own initiative.