Brussels, 06/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 6 March, the European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, published proposals for boosting the role played by European Citizens' Initiatives (ECI) in democratic political debate at European level, as she explained in a press release.
She calls for better guidance for ECI organisers, a stronger involvement of the European Parliament and the Council and increased pressure on the Member States to make sure that all EU citizens can sign an ECI, regardless of where they reside.
Emily O'Reilly explained: “The Commission has done a lot to give effect to the ECI right in a citizen-friendly way. However, more can be done to ensure that ECI organisers feel that their efforts to mobilise one million signatures are worthwhile and that political debate at the European level takes account of their initiatives, even if specific initiatives do not lead to new EU legislation. We need a more effective dialogue with ECI organisers at different stages of an initiative as well as more transparent decision-making as regards what action the Commission takes on ECIs.”
She has unveiled eleven proposals to improve the ECI, asking the Commission, where it rejects ECIs, to explain those decisions in a consistent and comprehensible way, and to explain its political choices as regards the follow-up to ECIs that have obtained one million signatures in a detailed and transparent way. She also calls on the Commission to improve the online collection system software, as well as the quality checks to ensure that funding and sponsorship information is correct. Because of different signature collection rules in the member states, not all EU citizens are currently able to sign ECIs and the Ombudsman urges the Commission to, once again, propose to the legislature simpler and uniform requirements for all Member States. Since the ECI became operational in April 2012, three initiatives managed to collect one million signatures in at least seven Member States. The most recent “Stop Vivisection ECI” proposes EU legislation aimed at phasing out animal experiments. (Solenn Paulic)