The Lisbon Treaty has given to the Commission the responsibility to get around national governments and carry out direct dialogue with citizens. There is a new provision which provides for the citizens' right of initiative allowing for the first time participatory democracy. Hence, under the Lisbon Treaty, the Commission might be called to present an “appropriate proposal” in areas falling within the EU’s competence, “on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties.” However, such initiative must be signed by one million nationals “from a significant number of member States.”
The Treaty foresees that the procedures and conditions required for the so called citizens' initiative would be decided in a Regulation, proposed by the European Commission, adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, “acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure”, meaning co-decision. Last November, the Commission launched a public consultation on this matter and it has identified several legal, administrative and practical issues with the implementation of the so called "new institutional instrument.” On 31 March, the Commission presented its proposal for a regulation on the citizens’ initiative. One could wonder whether such initiative will work in practice.
The Treaty solely indicates that the signatories of a citizens' initiative must come from "a significant number of Member States." The Commission’s proposal sets "the minimum number of Member States from which such citizens must come" at one third of Member States (9 Member States.) However, this might represent an obstacle to such initiatives. Moreover, the Commission has set a minimum number of signatures which are required to support an initiative in each of the Member States involved. The Commission has, initially, suggested setting the threshold at 0.2% of the total population of each Member State where signatures are collected as the minimum number of citizens required for that State. However, such proposal has not gathered much support during the consultation, consequently the Commission has proposed “a fixed threshold for each Member”, which is, according to the proposal “degressively proportional to the population of each State with a minimum threshold and a ceiling.” Hence, according to Annex I to the proposal, for instances, in France it would be required 55,500 signatories, in Germany 72,000, in Portugal 16,500 and in the UK 54,750.
The signatories of a citizen’s initiative must be “citizens of the Union”, or in case of an organiser being a legal person it must be established in a Member State. The Commission has also set a minimum age for supporting a citizens' initiative. In the Member States which provide for these initiatives citizens must be eligible to vote in order to participate. The Commission noted that the voting age in Austria is 16 whereas in all the other Member States is 18. The Commission has proposed the minimum age required to support a European citizens' initiative as the citizens voting age for the European elections.
Under the draft proposal organisers of a citizens' initiative would be required to register the proposed initiative on an online register made available by the Commission, before starting collecting statements of support from signatories. The Commission has, therefore, proposed a mandatory system of registration of proposed initiatives, on a specific website which will be provided by it. Moreover, they will be required to provide information such as the subject-matter of the proposed initiative, a “description of the objectives of the proposal”, the Treaties legal base, as well as “all sources of funding and support for the proposed initiative at the time of Registration.” Furthermore, they would have to provide their “full name, postal address and e-mail address.”
The Commission acknowledged that for launching a European citizens' initiative it would be necessary funding and support from organizations. The Commission has said that “(…) without prejudice to other forms of cooperation and support for civil society organizations, it is not foreseen that any specific public funding would be provided for citizens' initiatives.” The Commission might not directly provide funding for citizens' initiatives but it has been spending millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money in trans-national participatory democracy projects aiming to connect citizens with decision makers. The Commission has claimed that the EU citizens would have a stronger voice as they will be able to call on the Commission to present new policy initiatives, being able to directly participate in the EU legislative process. Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President for Inter-institutional Relations and Administration, has said that "This is a real step forward in the democratic life of the Union. It's a concrete example of bringing Europe closer to its citizens.” Moreover, Viviane Reding, EU Citizenship Commissioner, has welcomed the proposal because it “(…) will show that the EU is serious about listening to its citizens' concerns." However, such initiatives, would be mainly used by political parties and interests groups. Only organised citizens' groups can attain the expertise needed if they want to influence the EU in a specialized field. Most of NGOs, citizens organizations who lobby the EU institutions are funded by the Commission and they cannot be critical of the EU project, therefore this is a disguised rather than an example of democracy. Moreover, citizens would be allowed to call for new legislation but not to show their dissatisfaction and call for the withdrawal of burdensome regulations which affect their daily lives. According to Maroš Šefčovič the democratic debate will not be limited by the Commission, however he stressed, according to the EUobserver, that the commission won’t be used as a platform for "making fun of the European Union," through “frivolous initiatives.” In fact, under the draft proposal, the Commission has the power to reject the registration of any proposed citizens' initiatives which it deems to be “abusive or devoid of seriousness” and “manifestly against the values of the Union.” The European citizens' initiative will be the gateway for Eurofanatic organisations to request the Commission to initiate legislative proposals. In other words, they would give to the Commission an “excuse” to put forward more regulations. In the other hand, the Commission is not obliged to adopt these proposals. Hence, such initiatives would be a waste of time and money.
Once the proposed initiative has been registered, the organisers will have one year to collect the signatures. Statements of support from signatories for a proposed citizens' initiative might be collected in paper form or electronically. Although the Commission has not proposed restrictions on how organisers should collect statements of support, it adds bureaucracy to the initiative requiring the organisers to fulfil several forms which must comply with the models set out in the annexes to the proposal.
There is a statement of support form which must be completed by the organisers for the collection of signatures. They must provide the same information provided in the register. Then, each signatory must complete the form providing their full name, address, email, date and place of birth, nationality, identity documents number such as national identity card, passport, social security. They must certify that they have provided the correct information.
Under the proposal, statements of support can be collected online, in this case the data collected must be stored in the territory of a Member State. According to the Commission the online collection systems must be subject to security and technical specifications so that “the identity of the person can be verified” and the data is securely stored. Unsurprisingly, such technical specifications will be decided by the Commission through the comitology procedure. The initiative organisers would have, therefore, to ensure that the online collection system comply with such provisions before collecting statements of support from signatories. In fact, they would be required to ask the Member State’s competent authorities, in which the data collected is or will be stored, to certify that the online collection system complies with the security requirements adopted by the Commission. Then, within one month those authorities would be required to issue a certificate, in accordance with the model provide in an annex to the proposal, confirming the conformity of an online collection system used for the electronic collection of signatures.
The citizens’ initiative organisers first have to collect 300.000 statements of support from signatories coming from at least three Member States, then, under the proposal, using a form set out in an annex, they must submit to the Commission a request for a decision on the admissibility of the proposed citizens' initiative. Following this request, the Commission would have two months to decide on the admissibility of proposed citizens' initiatives. A proposal would be deemed admissible if “it concerns a matter where a legal act of the Union can be adopted for the purpose of implementing the Treaties” and “it falls within the framework of the powers of the Commission to make a proposal.”
If a proposed citizens' initiative is admissible, under the draft proposal, the organisers, using another form set out in an annex, must submit the statements of support, in paper or in electronic form, to the relevant national competent authorities for verification and certification. Member States are required to designate one competent authority which will be responsible for checking the validity of signatures for a European citizens' initiative. Statements of support would be submitted to the Member State that issued the signatories’ identification documents. Then, the competent authorities would have three months to verify statements of support, and to issue a certificate, free of charge, in accordance with the model set out by the Commission, confirming their validity.
All Member States have their own procedures for the verification of electors and several Member States have also their own verification and authentication procedures for national citizens' initiatives. The Commission has not proposed minimum requirements for verification and authentication of signatures as it would be up to the Member States to decide which checks should be carried out to verify the validity of statements of support collected for an initiative declared admissible by the Commission. Nevertheless, this would entail further administrative and regulatory burdens for the UK which does not have citizens' initiatives as majority of Member States, therefore it does not have in place authentication procedures for national citizens' initiatives.
Having obtained the above mentioned certificates and complied with the Regulation’s provisions, the organisers may submit the citizens’ initiative to the Commission using, for this purpose the form set out by the Commission. The Lisbon treaty does not provide a time limit for the Commission to deal with a citizens' initiative. The Commission has proposed a time-frame of 4 months from the date of formal submission of an initiative to it. The Commission would be required to adopt a communication setting out its conclusions on the initiative and the action it intends to take, whether or not it intends to propose legislation in the area concerned.
A citizen’s initiative involves personal data. The signatories would have to provide personal information, such as personal identification numbers. Why so much personal data is required? Is it really necessary? Despite the Commission assurances, one could wonder if the data would be adequately protected. Under the draft proposal the initiatives’ organisers would be designated as “data controllers” and they would be required to “destroy all statements of support” one month after submitting an initiative to the Commission. The Member States’ competent authorities would also have to destroy all statements of support one month after issuing the abovementioned certificates. Moreover, the organizers would be required to put in place measures to protect personal data, however there is no assurance yet that such data will not be used for other purposes by unauthorized users.
The draft proposal would require Member States to ensure that citizens initiative organisers who reside or are established on their territory are liable under their civil or criminal law for infringements of the present regulation particularly for false declarations, non-conformity with the requirements for online collection systems and the fraudulent use of data.
As abovementioned, the Commission will set up a website containing a register for proposed citizens' initiatives. According to the Commission’s impact assessment the development of an information system will cost €500.000 in 2010, and around €0.110 in the following years. Two Commission officials will maintain the website and monitor the register. Each would be paid €122.000 per year. Moreover, the Commission has estimated that a committee composed of Member States representatives, which will be set up to assist the Commission in approving the security and technical specifications for online collection of signatures, will cost €0.080, over two years, in meetings. Hence, according to the Commission €0.784 will come out from the EU budget in 2010, and then the citizens’ initiative administrative expenditure will be around €0.354 per year.
The Commission is expecting the proposal to be endorsed by the European Parliament and the Council by the end of the year, in this way the first initiatives can start at the beginning of 2011.
