The Euractiv reports: "The European Citizens’ Initiative is struggling to gain momentum a year after being launched, bogged down by technical and bureaucratic hurdles that have prevented a single petition from meeting all the requirements…"
Moreover, it pointed out, "Of the nearly 30 proposed ECIs only 14 have successfully registered and just one – focusing on water rights – has gathered the required one million signatures. But the latter falls short of requirements because the signatures come only from five EU states, two short of the minimum needed."
It is important to recall that the Commission has claimed that the EU citizens now have a stronger voice as they are able to call on the Commission to present new policy initiatives, being able to directly participate in the EU legislative process. However, such initiatives, are 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 are 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. The European citizens' initiative is 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.
