Citizens`initiative
Citizens ‘initiative
The Lisbon Treaty provides that 1 million European citizens can sign a petition to the EU. The European Parliament proposed in the Kaufmann report of May 2009 that the signatures must represent at least 1/500th of the citizens in at least 1/4 of the member states.
In the implementatin rules there is a scheme regarding the minimum number of signatures from each of at least seven countries.
More than 1.2 million citizens have signed a petition calling for only one seat for the European Parliament. The Conference of Presidents in the European Parliament decided not to allow a debate in lenary session regarding this petition.
The first successful petition under the new rules was regarding access to water. In 2014, the Commission promised to initiate a new EU law on this.
Links
http://ec.europa.eu/citizens-i......ative/public/basic-facts?lg=en
