Brussels, 31/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - Friday 1 November is the deadline for the first eight European Citizens' Initiatives (ECIs) to achieve the required level of backing. Three groups say they have met the conditions laid down in the EU ECI rules of a million signatures and a sufficient number of signatures in at least seven member states, namely Right2Water, which says water is a public good, not a commodity, One of Us, which aims to stop EU financing of projects that lead to the destruction of human embryos and Stop Vivisection, which wants to put an end to vivisection and testing on live animals (see EUROPE 10952).
Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President of the European Commission, welcomed the fact that three very different ECIs had met the threshold, which proves that this unique and highly ambitious, multinational, participatory democracy experiment has got citizens interested across Europe. He expressed sympathy for the organisers of the remaining five ECIs, saying that the time and energy deployed had not been in vain because they had managed to forge links with people sharing the same views across Europe and generate genuine pan-European debate on issues that are clearly very important to them, laying solid foundations on which they can continue their campaigning.
National authorities now have three months to validate the signatures, a process that began in September for Right2Water. Assuming they pass the validation, the European Commission will have three months to examine the ECIs and decide what steps to take. It will meet the respective organisers to learn more about the issues raised in the initiative and the organisers will be able to present their initiative at a public hearing at the European Parliament. The Commission will then publish a communication setting out its conclusions on the initiative, the action, if any, it is planning to take, and the reasons why. (LC/transl.fl)