Voice of the people

The regulation on the so-called "citizens' initiative" has reached the final stages of the EU legislative procedure, with the General Affairs Council endorsing the text on 14 December and the European Parliament approving it on 15 December. This innovation under the Treaty of Lisbon will enable European citizens to ask the Commission to put forward legislative proposals.

© Fotolia

First, the "organisers" of the initiative (which have to be a group of at least 7 people from at least 7 member states) will have to register their proposed citizens' initiative with the Commission, i.e. to present a brief description of its purpose, subject-matter and objectives in one of the EU languages.

The Commission will register it if the conditions provided for in the regulation are fulfilled. Following registration, the organisers will have to collect one million statements of support (signatures) for their initiative from citizens from at least a quarter of all the Member States. They will have 12 months to complete this task. The statements can be collected in paper form or electronically.

In addition, the regulation sets a minimum number of signatories per member state. For example, in Luxembourg and Malta one will need 4,500 and 3,750 signatures respectively, while there will have to be 54,000 British citizens and 74,250 Germans willing to support the proposed initiative.

The minimum number of signatories per state is calculated as follows: the number of its members of the European Parliament multiplied by 750.

Finally, after the statements of support have been verified and a successful citizens' initiative has been submitted to the Commission, the latter will publish within three months its conclusions on whether or not it intends to take action on the initiative, and will provide explanations.

More information:
Press release
Webcast of press conference