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Ensuring a smooth functioning of the new rules and provisions under the Lisbon treaty is among the priorities set in the political programme of the Spanish Presidency to the European Council, which is the first presidency to exercise its respective functions on the basis of the new legal text.
One of the most innovative tools introduced by the Lisbon treaty is the European Citizens Initiative set in article 11, paragraph 4, which enables the European citizens to present to the Commission legislation proposals on any matter of concern, provided that they succeed in collecting one million signatures.
Coming at a time when an increasing number of citizens feel distant from the European institutions and the political process, this tool seems to have the potential to achieve some change in the observed trends. Indeed, the citizens will be empowered to directly contribute to the European Union policy shaping. However, before they can start exercising this new right, a few ground rules and procedures have to be laid down in an EU regulation.
In order to prepare the right legislation which will turn the ECI operational, the European Commission published a Green Paper and launched a public consultation process, aimed at seeking views and ideas of all interested individuals and organisations on how to implement this new tool. The public consultation was followed by a Stakeholders Hearing organised by the European Commission inviting respondents to the Green Paper.
CEDAG, represented by Ariane Rodert, vice-president, was in the forefront of this process contributing to the public consultation and the Hearing. The main conclusions were that the initiative needs to be user friendly, simply structured and accessible to citizens.
The critical areas which rest to define are specifically the verification of signatures and admissibility of initiatives. Taking into consideration the consultation replies and the debate during the hearing, the Commission will soon publish a final proposal on the structure of the Citizen’s Imitative.
The ECI has the potential of both helping to close the gap between citizens and institutions, and of contributing to the development of a stronger European civil society.
However, the results will depend on the concrete application of this measure. It will be critical to establish a process with clear rules of the “game”, a comprehensive support structures and a clear understanding that this new instrument is an alternative mean to the Parliament and Council’s right to propose new EU legislation to the European Commission
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