European Citizens' Initiative
The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) is one of the major innovations of the Treaty of Lisbon, aimed at increasing direct democracy in the European Union. The initiative enables one million EU citizens, who are nationals of at least one quarter of the Member States, to call directly on the European Commission to propose a legal act in an area where the Member States have conferred powers onto the EU level.[1] This right to request the Commission to initiate a legislative proposal puts citizens on the same footing as the EP and the Council, who enjoy this right according to Art. 225 and 241 TFEU, respectively. The Commission holds the right of initiative in the EU.
Legal basis
The legal basis of the citizens' initiative is set out in Article 11, Paragraph 4 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and Article 24, paragraph 1 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Both articles were newly introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon. The ECI complements the existing right of petition the European Parliament and the right of appeal to the Ombudsman as set out in the Treaty of Maastricht (1993). Petitions and the ECI are fundamentally different however in terms of function, addressees and conditions.[2]
The practical arrangements, conditions and procedure of the ECI have been determined in a new regulation. On a proposal from the European Commission, the EP and the Council adopted a regulation which defines the rules and procedure governing this new instrument.[3] According to this regulation, the earliest possible date to register an ECI is April 1, 2012.
Before the entry into force
Greenpeace has collected one million signatures in December 2010 for a petition against the authorisation of new GM crops in Europe, hosted by Avaaz.[4] Although Greenpeace has called the petition a ECI in the media, it has never been formally registered with the Commission - as this is not possible before 1 April, 2012 - and can therefore not be regarded a ECI as defined in the Lisbon Treaty.
Another ECI called Fraternité2020 is currently in its developing stages and wants to increase money for EU exchange programmes in the EU budget.[5] Furthermore, a ECI is planned by German MEP Martin Kastler who is seeking to ban shops opening on Sundays.[6]
References
- ^ http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat_general/citizens_initiative/index_en.htm
- ^ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/parliament/expert/displayFtu.do?language=en&id=73&ftuId=FTU_2.5.html
- ^ Regulation (EU) No. 211/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council 16 February 2011 on the citizens' initiative. Available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:065:0001:0022:EN:PDF.
- ^ http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/agriculture/solution-ecological-farming/take-action/EU-Petition/
- ^ http://www.fraternite2020.eu/
- ^ http://www.free-sunday.eu/en
External links
- European Citizens' Initiative on the initiator's web: