The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe considers that the Citizens Initiative (art.11.4) of the Lisbon Treaty is a major democratic step and are determined to make this new provision a success.   

A high level seminar was organised this morning with the participation of Marcos Sefcovic, Vice President of the European Commission in charge of Inter-institutional relations and marked this step towards the bringing to life of this initiative.  "This is about engaging with the citizen and involving the opinions of our citizens in influencing legislation" explained Silvana Koch-Mehrin (FDP Germany), Vice-President of the European Parliament in her opening remarks.

Commissioner Sefcovic explained that the political agreement which was reached by the Council on 14 June, is based on the principles of simplicity and accessibility of the public on the one hand and  preventing the non-conformity of certain citizens initiatives with the Treaty on the other.  On this second point,  it will be the Commission alone that will determine if a Citizens Initiative is admissible.  This approach was contested by Anneli Jaatteenmaki (Suomen Keskusta, Finland), ALDE shadow rapporteur on the Constitutional Affairs Committee.  She feels that " it should be the Court of Justice as a last resort that decides the eligibility of an initiative"

Diana WALLIS (LibDem, UK) co-rapporteur of the Petitions Committee text and Vice-president of the European Parliament argues for "an open procedure" concerning the origin of signatories on a Citizen's Initiative.  "I would like youth that are over 16 years old to have the opportunity to participate in an Initiative", she stated adding that according to her "the European Parliament should be the advocate of certain Initiatives."

In concluding, Marian Harkin, (Independent, Ireland) underlined "It is crucial that this institutional innovation succeeds if we want to bridge the ever increasing democratic gap between the EU and its citizens".


Note to the editors:

A fundamental innovation of the Lisbon Treaty, the Citizen's Initiative allows a million Europeans to ask the European Commission to make a legislative proposal in a specific field.  According to a political agreement concluded with the Council, any organiser must first register and explain his project before collecting support.  Once 100,000 signatures have been gathered, the Commission will decide if the initiative is admissible or not, before the gathering of the remaining signatures.  The European Parliament should decide by the end of the year based on reports from the AFCO and PETI committees.