Strasbourg, 28/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - In overwhelmingly passing the report by György Schöpflin (EPP, Hungary) on the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI), the European Parliament delivered suggestions on Wednesday 28 October on improving this “first tool for participatory democracy”.
Since 2012, the ECI has given EU citizens the right, on condition that they gather at least one million statements of support from at least one quarter of the member states, to take the initiative and ask the Commission to submit a legislative proposal on matters on which citizens consider falls within EU power.
More than six million EU citizens have already participated in an ECI, 51 requests to launch an initiative, only three of which - Right2Water, One of Us and Stop Vivisection - were deemed admissible. Six ECI organisers, corresponding to 30% of all rejections, have challenged the Commission's refusal before the Court of Justice, which “shows that much still needs to be done to make sure that the ECI lives up to its full potential”, Parliament says.
Parliament calls on the Commission to recommend to the member states that they lower the age for supporting and participating in an ECI from 18 to 16 and that it is not to be linked to the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament. This, Parliament argues, would give young people, in particular, the possibility of becoming actively involved in taking the European project forward.
In adopting an amendment proposed by the EPP and S&D Groups, Parliament calls on the Commission to revise the wording of Article 10(c) of Regulation 211/2011 instituting the ECI to allow proper follow-up to successful initiatives. It urges the Commission to start preparing a legal act on successful ECIs “within 12 months after issuing a positive opinion”.
Parliament also calls on the Commission to consider granting financial support to ECIs from existing EU budgets and asks it to support the development of dedicated ECI software that is compatible with mobile telephones.
The Commission is expected to begin an in-depth revision of ECIs in 2016. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)