EU to allow its citizens to propose laws, under strict conditions

Brussels - The European Union is to allow its citizens to sign online petitions asking for new laws to be drafted, but only after a series of safeguards are respected, according to a proposal presented Wednesday by the European Commission.

The so-called citizens' initiative is one of the reforms foreseen by the EU's Lisbon Treaty. It is meant to reduce the perceived gap between voters and Brussels institutions, often perceived as too wide and bureaucratic.

"It will introduce a whole new form of participatory democracy to the EU," said Maros Sefcovic, the EU commissioner in charge of putting the proposal into practice.

In 2006 a web-based campaign calling for the abolishment of the Strasbourg seat of the EU Parliament - seen by some as a waste of money as most parliamentary activities are based in Brussels - came to nothing as the commission could not legally act upon it.

This could now change, as Sefcovic vowed that the EU executive "will have to give serious consideration to requests made by citizens' initiatives."

However, he also implied that there is no obligation for them to be taken up, since the commission, the EU's executive, is to retain its exclusive right to draft legislation.

According to the proposals, citizens' initiatives would have to be supported by at least 1 million people from one third of the EU's 27 current member states, with signatures being collected within a year.

Petitions could be killed off immediately if the EU executive found them "manifestly against the fundamental values of the EU."

There would also be a minimum tally of signatures from single EU nations, equal to the number of deputies that country elects to the European Parliament, multiplied by a factor of 750.

In Germany, the bloc's most populous country with over 80 million people, the threshold would be equal to around 74,000 signatures.

Once the 300,000 signatures mark is reached, with input from at least three member states, a preliminary check would be carried out to see if the commission would be legally allowed to draft the EU law being proposed.

"It is important that this new feature of the democratic process should be credible, should fully assure data protection and should not be open to abuse or fraud," the EU executive stressed.

Once all the hurdles are cleared, the commission would have four months to either accept the citizens' initiative by coming forward with the required legislation, commission a study - which would mean a longer process - or reject it outright.

The reforms have to be agreed by EU member states and by the parliament before they become operational. The commission hopes this could happen by the end of the year.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/316574,eu-to-allow-its-citizens-to-propose-laws-under-strict-conditions.html.