The European Commission decided on Wednesday 4 September to register three new European Citizens' Initiatives (ECIs) on the fight against corruption, the climate emergency and protecting bees.
The Commission has just decided on the legal admissibility of these ECIs. If, within one year, any of the three registered initiatives receives one million statements of support from at least seven Member States, the Commission will analyse and respond to it.
The organisers are asking the Commission to impose on new EU Member States “a firm deadline of ten years after accession for an automatic moratorium on payments of structural and cohesion funds until the monitoring mechanism is lifted from their judiciary”.
The second ECI calls for more ambitious climate goals.
In the third, the Commission is called on to propose legal acts to phase out synthetic pesticides by 2035, restore biodiversity and assist farmers during this transitional phase.
Finally, the Commission has decided not to register an ECI proposal aimed at ensuring the conformity of common commercial policy with EU treaties, as well as compliance with international law, “because it manifestly falls outside the Commission's power to act as set out in the EU treaties”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)