Brussels, 23/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - The organisers of a European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) launched in Brussels on Tuesday 22 January 2013 are hoping to get a million signatures in 12 months to demand EU legislation to put an end to “ecocide” in Europe, that is, partial or total degradation of an ecosystem.
Patron MEPs Eva Joly (Greens/EFA, France), Keith Taylor (Greens/EFA, UK) and Jo Leinen (S&D, Germany) are the first three MEPs to sign the ECI and the send-off took place in the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday, attended by campaigning international lawyer and bestselling author Polly Higgins, (“Eradicating Ecocide” and “Earth is Our Business”).
It is hoped the petition will lead to a draft EU directive. It calls for EU-wide harmonisation of national laws, punishing damage to the environment and “ecocide” by companies or individuals in the European Union or elsewhere.
The MEPs that have already signed say the ECI is a call for coherence and responsibility because by making ecocide a crime in the EU, the European club will increase its global credibility when it comes to protecting the environment, credibility that is only too often weakened by the behaviour of European multinationals.
The ECI follows attempts by Polly Higgins in April 2010 to get the United Nations to amend its rules and make ecocide the fifth international war crime, alongside genocide, crimes of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In order to fulfil the legal requirements for an ECI and have any chance of forcing the European Commission to take action and unveil legislation, the signatures have to come from at least seven EU member states. The ECI idea was introduced with the Lisbon Treaty on 1 April 2012 as a new form of participatory democracy, but it has to meet lengthy, complex rules. (AN/transl.fl)