Democracy , EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Society, Technology

European Ombudsman, Mr. Diamandouros is fulfilling his mandate with a lot of energy and high professionalism, which has earned him a lot of trust of citizens in this important office and with it in the EU. He has truly been giving the citizens a voice and defending their interest, when necessary.

Important that this event was supported by the European Parliament, an institution, which is directly elected by the citizens of the EU and powerfully articulates their concerns, wishes and hopes. The PETI Committee has earned in this context a lot of trust as the Committee, where citizens can send their petitions and expect a thorough, powerful follow-up.

Reference: European Ombudsman seminar: It's Our Europe, Let's Get Active/Brussels; SPEECH/13/356, 23 April 2013.

Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Institutional relations and Administration delivered a speech at the seminar titled “A million voices make a difference: the power of the European Citizens' Initiative”. Below followed some extracts from the Commissioner’s speech.

Citizen’s greater role

The Lisbon Treaty (2009) has introduced into the EU decision-making a new “instrument”: the citizen’s initiative. This European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) gives citizens a greater role in the European policies, connecting more effectively the EU institutions with more than 500m people in the continent.

That's why it's so important that 2013 has been designated by the EU as the European Year of Citizens; this is to specify the concept and ideas of this year concerning citizens’ rights.

Important as well is that European citizens are celebrating in 2013 an occasion when –for the first time they will have a direct opportunity to influence EU policymaking as the first European Citizens' Initiatives reach their conclusion.

First experiment

On 1 April 2012 the ECI was made valid (through the Lisbon Treaty) and a first experiment in trans-national participatory democracy was launched. Despite that launch date, the European citizens have taken this new right extremely seriously, and the Commission has received 25 requests for registration in the first 12 months. Of these, 14 have been registered and are currently collecting signatures with the aim of reaching the threshold of 1 million.

Provided they do this, and meet the geographical balance required in at least seven Member States, then they will move to the next phase – verification of the signatures, a hearing in the Parliament and an assessment by the Commission of whether their ECI could eventually become EU law.

“Right2Water”: working project

One ECI project – Right2Water – already has over a million names in support, and is close to reaching the appropriate geographical spread as well. It is safe, acknowledged the Commissioner, that it will be the first ECI move into this second stage in the European Year of Citizens.

“This is no mean achievement, said the Commissioner; it is one that will have confounded the critics, who have accused ECIs of being 'lobbying by the back door' or as merely paying lip service to participatory democracy”.

There are some teething problems in ECI, e.g. the well-documented issues with the online collection system and with the cost of certification and hosting – but these were to be expected with an operation of this scale.

The EU institutions reacted positively to these issues, for example making Commission IT services available for advice and assistance on the OCS and offering to temporarily host some of the first ECIs.

As such, the ECI has contributed in a small way to the start of what is the first real pan-European debate between citizens. Social media has made it easier than ever before for citizens from around the European member states to share their thoughts and concerns, their hopes and ideals.

ECI’s importance for the member states

The importance of the ECI to the member states is to show them a picture which goes beyond its current ramifications. In few years, European states will have e-ID cards, which would allow its citizens not only to hold their health records and personal data on the chip, but also to participate in democratic e-debates, to use them in elections as is already seen in Estonia.

There is presently a clear trend towards developing deeper EU integration, notably in the economic domain, for example when the Commission gets new powers to comment on budgets, or on issues of a country’s specific recommendations on child care, etc. It is evident that there will be stronger and louder calls from citizens to have a say in this democratic process in order to be heard, in order to participate and in order to form a transnational democratic process of debates. On top of it, it is clear that the Facebook and Twitter generation will wish to do it via the internet, via electronic means and social media.  

With the ECI, citizens for the first time have a real chance to turn these hopes and concerns into something more concrete, to get them firmly onto the European agenda. A couple of ECIs have already done that: Fraternité2020, which was the very first ECI to be registered, and Right2Water, which is the first to reach the 1m mark.

These, and many of the other ECIs, respond to citizens' concerns about their fundamental benefits and rights in the European Union.  

The freedom to live, work and travel within the EU; health and well-being both for citizens and for the European continent, social justice –these are just a few examples of “practical ECI. At the same time, these are broad themes that many of the current ECIs belong to, and they reflect in general the understanding that these are areas where action is best carried out at the European level.

The first piece of legislation initiated by citizens to make it onto the EU statue books – whatever the subject and whenever it happens – would be no small achievement and a real boost for the ECI as a whole. More importantly, it would show clearly that citizens can make their voices heard, can make a real difference to the way in which EU policy is designed and implemented, and can help make Europe more relevant to the citizens.  

Successful start to the ECI can be carried through to a successful conclusion as well, argued the Commissioner finalizing his speech.

General reference: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-13-356_en.htm?locale=en