Implementation of the European citizens' initiative
The Swiss student Anna Zuber from the European Students' Forum (AEGEE) launched 4 years ago the idea to start the "initiative for the European citizens' initiative". More than a hundred NGOs joined the campaign, thousands of people signed on paper for ECI. The European Parliament has voted in favour of the European Citizens' Initiative. In informal conversations these weeks, the EU-Commission has signalled that they tend to present a much more citizens-friendly proposal than the European Parliament has. Not however before October 2nd, when the Irish citizens vote on the Lisbon treaty.
After the ECI-signatures had been turned in in January 2008, the Vice-presidents of the European Parliament (EP) rejected the call for the immediate introduction of ECI and delivered instead "a resolution on the implementation of the ECI", which is addressed to the EU-Commission. In general there is large consensus in the European Parliament about the necessity of ECI as a large majority agrees on the principal idea to give half a billion Europeans the same right to launch pan-European law-making processes as the European Parliament (EP) and the European Council already enjoy.
However, this new European Citizen Initiative (in the new treaty it would be Art. 11.4 TEU-Lisbon), must first be equipped with a supportive and citizen-friendly implementation law. It is exactly these implementation guide-lines what the resolution of the EP is all about. It outlines very important details about how future European Citizens' Initiative must be conducted in order to be legally acceptable.
Unfortunately the European Parliament's proposal is not citizen-friendly yet. It still is too cumbersome and bureaucratic. Many aspects remain vague and need to be improved. For example the proposed mode for collecting signatures needs to be simplified and the short timeline should be extended. The number of Members States from where the signatures have to come from should be reduced as well as the distribution quorum. Supportive elements such as the right to receive legal advice, translation of the signature text and reimbursement in part of the costs are also still missing.