OPINION:EU citizens have a powerful method under Lisbon of getting their concerns on to the union's agenda – as soon as MEPs and the European Council decide how
THE EUROPEAN Citizens’ Initiative is one of the innovations contained in the Lisbon treaty to enhance the democratic fabric of the European Union.
It seeks to empower citizens of the 27 member states to participate directly in the decision-making process of the EU. It provides a mechanism for citizens to have their concerns placed on the agenda of the European Commission for consideration.
The citizens’ initiative is explained in the Lisbon treaty as follows: “Not less than one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of member states may take the initiative of inviting the commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the union is required for the purpose of implementing the treaties.”
The treaty came into force last December and the commission must now draw up a regulation to be adopted by both the European Parliament and the European Council to determine the structure whereby the new citizens’ entitlement will be exercised.
The commission is anxious to have the regulation on the initiative in place by December 1st, 2010, so that this new dimension to European democracy in the EU can be exercised on the first anniversary of the treaty coming into force.
At the same time it is important that there is wide public consultation on the proposals.
The principle of the new initiative is straightforward. A number of member states already have such a mechanism in operation in their own national democratic systems. Indeed Spain, which holds the presidency of the EU at present, already has a national citizens’ initiative, and is well placed to advise the commission in drafting its proposals.
However, there are a host of legal, administrative and practical issues to be negotiated. A million signatures for a citizens’ initiative sounds a daunting task, but with the population of the EU approaching 500 million it constitutes approximately 0.2 per cent of the total population.
A citizen of a small member state has equal access to the internet as a citizen from a large state. To establish a level playing field, it would seem logical to allow signatures to be collected by electronic means.
E-mail and the internet present their own problems, however: how can signatures be authenticated? Can a PPS number or other personal identification method be used without infringing laws of privacy? The electoral register for the European elections, though not perfect, would also be a useful yardstick of authentication.
But how can the great Irish diasporas worldwide or even the thousands of Irish citizens living in the EU be accommodated, since they are not on any Irish electoral register or database?
Should the age threshold be set at 18 as is the voting norm in most EU countries (for European elections), or should it be set at 16, as is the practice in Austria for example? Should each member state be permitted to have its own voting age?
Young people are often impatient with traditional representative democracy. They have many issues that they feel are neglected by the older political establishment. Direct participative democracy through the internet would appear to be ideally suited to them.
The wording of the initiative in the Lisbon treaty makes it clear that the signatories must be those of “nationals of a significant number of member states”.
The purpose of this clause is to ensure that the initiative is reasonably representative across the EU. At the same time it is a citizens’ initiative and, therefore, should have as few obstacles as possible placed in the way of achieving the required number of signatures.
The commission itself proposes one-third of member states – or nine – as the appropriate threshold in its Green Paper on the European Citizens’ Initiative. The European Parliament has proposed a quarter – or seven.
It is unlikely that an individual citizen can launch, organise and be able to deliver one million signatures across the EU without a lot of help from organisations and groups. Funding will be required, too.
The regulation to be drawn up by the commission should require that all relevant information on funding and support services would have to be disclosed in a declaration of interests. Likewise, it would be improper to have the appeal for signatories directly linked to an appeal for money at the point of signature collection.
What form should the wording of a citizens’ initiative take? And who would register the initiative as valid and admissible within the terms specified in the Lisbon treaty, namely “where citizens consider that a legal act of the union is required for the purpose of implementing the treaties?”
It would be heart-rending for citizens to collect a million signatures of support for their initiative only to have it declared invalid by the commission post factum.
Therefore, there would have to be some requirements as to what form an initiative should take so that the subject matter and objectives of the initiative are clearly identified as soon as possible
Also, some body, perhaps the European Ombudsman should be charged with determining the admissibility of a proposed initiative prior to the collection of signatures.
There are a host of other thorny issues to be resolved before the European Citizens’ Initiative is up and running.
Unfortunately, there has been precious little public debate on the initiative to date.
Irish citizens are largely unaware of its existence. A concerted effort should be made by the EU and the Government to engage the public in the debate.
This initiative in participative democracy created by the EU for all EU citizens could usefully be adopted as a national citizens’ initiative in Ireland, to enable Irish citizens to have issues of concern to them reach the floor of the Dáil and Seanad through direct input.
Joe Costello is Labour Party spokesman on Europe and on human rights