Brussels, 28/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) will be officially launched on Sunday 1 April. This initiative was included in the Lisbon Treaty and will enable European citizens to request that the Commission introduces specific legislative proposals.
The Danish minister for European affairs, Nicolai Wammen welcomed this on Wednesday 28 March as “a new chapter in European democracy… from now on, citizens will be able to put their wishes onto the agenda”. He added that the ECI is an innovative instrument for, “bringing new ideas into reflection bodies… in order to renew and boost the EU and make it more democratic and transparent”.
Anneli Jäätteenmäki MEP (ALDE, Finland) said that although it is a little early to say whether the initiative will be able to put some subjects on the institutions' agenda it would be able to “provide Europeans with the possibility of highlighting needs that are currently ignored at a European level”. The MEP hoped that it would “make good the divide separating legislators from European citizens”.
Nonetheless, with the deadline approaching, questions remain: three member states have still not provided the Commission with the names of the appropriate national authorities for the internet collection platform. Maros Sefcovic, the commissioner for inter-institutional relations, hopes that he will receive their names by Sunday. Taking the view that there are not enough in-depth discussions in the institutions, he welcomed the fact that, “if a citizen's initiative clashes with a legislative proposal, there will be a real far-reaching debate”.
Given fears that the ECI could be used ill-advisedly by certain interest groups, European Parliament President Martin Schulz said that if lobbyists used the citizens' initiative for economic ends, they would be immediately identified through the system's “greater transparency”. (SD/transl.fl)