Citizens Initiative: 'about engaging with people' (Pudsey Liberal Democrats)

Pudsey Liberal Democrats <info@libdems.org.uk>

Citizens Initiative: 'about engaging with people'

June 22, 2010 4:15 PM
Originally published by Diana Wallis MEP

Diana Wallis MEP The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe considers that the Citizens Initiative (art.11.4) of the Lisbon Treaty is a major democratic step and is determined to make this new provision a success.

A high level seminar was organised this morning with the participation of Marcos Sefcovic, Vice President of the European Commission, and the person in charge of inter-institutional relations.

Diana Wallis, Vice-President of the European Parliament and co-rapporteur of the Petitions Committee text which will be carefully considered over the next few months, argued for "an open procedure" concerning the origin of signatories on a Citizen's Initiative.

"I would like youth who are over 16 years old to have the opportunity to participate in an Initiative", she stated adding that according to her "the European Parliament should be the advocate of certain initiatives."

"This is about engaging with the people and involving the opinions of people in influencing legislation".

Commissioner Sefcovic explained that the political agreement which was reached by the Council on 14 June, is based on the principles of simplicity and accessibility of the public on the one hand and preventing the non-conformity of certain citizens initiatives with the Treaty on the other.

A fundamental innovation of the Lisbon Treaty, the Citizen's Initiative allows a million Europeans to ask the European Commission to make a legislative proposal in a specific field. According to a political agreement concluded with the Council, any organiser must first register and explain their project before collecting support. Once 100,000 signatures have been gathered, the Commission will decide if the initiative is admissible or not, before the gathering of the remaining signatures. By the end of the year the European Parliament should decide, based on Diana's report from the Petitions Committee (along with a similar report from the AFCO committee), on the technical details of the Citizen's Initiative.