Several civil society organisations have described their disappointment after the European Parliament gave its green light to the launch of inter-institutional negotiations on the reform of the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI), with a negotiating mandate does not reinforce the institution's role in the area.
Together under the campaign #EPForgetUsNot, these organisations wrote to the Parliament on 2 July asking it to include “an explicit commitment (…) to significantly increase its structural involvement in the follow-up to successful ECIs” in the mandate. This participation would take the form of a plenary debate on each successful citizens' initiative, ahead of the Commission's decision.
The European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions have previously taken position in favour of a greater role for Parliament (see EUROPE 11990).
However, the #EPForgetUsNot movement welcomed the announcement by rapporteur György Schöpflin (EPP, Hungary) before the vote, confirming the continued reform process of the regulation to include such a commitment, with the support of the S&D group.
Parliament's mandate
The decision to begin inter-institutional negotiations was broadly supported (475 votes to 154, with 6 abstentions) at the plenary session of the European Parliament of 5 July.
The Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups opposed the decision. “The mandate adopted by a majority of Liberals, Socialists and Conservatives once again illustrates the inability of this coalition to reform the European democratic space by giving it citizens' participation tools”, said the vice-chair of the Greens/EFA group, Pascal Durand of France.
In his speech preceding the vote, the rapporteur said that the Council was “well disposed to these negotiations - a significant window of opportunity”.
The member states approved their negotiating mandate at the most recent 'General Affairs' Council on 26 June. Dropping the minimum age to take part in an ECI to 16 is the only one of the reforms proposed by the Commission in its text of September 2017 at the Council does not support (see EUROPE 11863).
The S&D group regrets the Council's position. “As the European Civic Chamber, we must not give in on this point”, said the group's spokesperson, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann of Germany. (Original version in French by Carmen Garcia, intern)