By Manuel Ruiz Rico
In 2012, the European Union adopted a mechanism for citizens to exercise direct democracy and promote EU directives: the European Citizens’ Initiative. However, three years after its entry into force, the high expectations it created among ordinary citizens have not been met.
Just three of the 31 initiatives have come to fruition and, of these, so far only one – on public water management – has succeeded in getting the European Commission to start moving its bureaucratic legal machinery so that its content can materialize into some form of European standard in the future. The EU recognizes the need to reform this tool but time is working against it: this year only one request for an initiative has been presented – compared with 16 in 2012, proof of how the initial expectations raised by this measure are deflating – a measure with which Brussels intended to bring the EU closer to the public and prevent them from continuing to see it as a huge bureaucratic and distant apparatus.
The EU recognizes the need to reform this tool but time is working against it: this year only one request for an initiative has been presented – compared with 16 in 2012
The Lisbon Treaty, which came into force on 1 December, 2009, introduced an unprecedented tool for exercising direct democracy in the EU: the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI). According to the legal text, this measure gives ordinary Europeans a power, which is practically exclusive to the European Commission, to propose directives for the Union. On 1 April, 2012 the measure came into force and anticipation was such that on 9 May of that year the first ECI was recorded: Fraternity 2020, which called for the reinforcement of European programmes, such as Erasmus, or the European Voluntary Service, to strengthen solidarity among EU states. The failure of this first ECI, which scarcely managed to collect 80,000 of the one million signatures needed, foreshadowed what would happen in the future: three years after this mechanism came into force, only three of the 31 ECIs which started out have managed to meet the tough requirements (including having to collect one million signatures within a year) and have been accepted by the European Commission. And so far, the EU has not actually come up with a single standard as a result of these citizens’ proposals.
According to an assessment conducted by the Union, in these three years, 51 citizens’ initiatives have been requested, of which, for starters, only 31 have been accepted since 20 of them did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Commission – one of the requirements imposed by European regulations.
The other requirements stipulate that, within a year, the ECI should collect one million signatures of support and a minimum number of signatures, laid down beforehand by the Commission, in at least seven of the 28 countries that make up the EU.
According to the legal text, this measure gives ordinary Europeans a power, which is practically exclusive to the European Commission, to propose directives for the Union.
This has meant that of the 31 which started out, only three have actually made it to the end: 18 failed to get the signatures by the deadline and 10 were withdrawn by their organizers. At present, there are three which are still at the stage of collecting signatures.
Of the three received by the Commission so far, having met all the requirements, one- Oneforus, which requested banning the use of human embryos for biomedical research, was rejected by the EU based on the understanding that this area was already well regulated by the Member States. Another, Stop Vivisection, which campaigns to ban the use of animals in scientific research, has not yet been given a response by the Commission; and only one, Right2Water, which seeks to regulate water as a public good in the Union and prevent the privatisation of its management, began legal proceedings within the Commission a year ago. But beyond that, little is known about it.
The organizers claim that “although the EU acted on the initiative of 17 February 2014, in the last year nothing has been done: there have scarcely been even two plebiscites on this issue conducted in 2014 and several meetings with the industry, but nothing more; nothing else has materialized at all”, state sources of the European Federation of Public Service Unions, the promoters of the initiative which, for this reason, staged a demonstration outside the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels on March 23, a protest that did not produce any reaction in the Commission.
According to European Commission sources, the Commission “is still reviewing its regulations on drinking water, which is one of the central points of the citizens’ initiative.” Jointly, the sources added, “the results of public consultations last year on access and water quality are being analysed, and work is also going on to improve transparency and the quality of data on drinking water in the EU.”
Certainly these are a far cry from the objectives pursued by the initiative, which calls for “ensuring public water management in the 28 Member States and putting a stop to the deregulation this sector is suffering in Europe – particularly by French multinationals” explains Pedro Arrojo, Professor of Economics at the University of Zaragoza in Spain and spokesman in Spain for Right2Water.
Another blow to extending the social confidence in these European Citizens’ Initiatives was the non-acceptance by the Commission of the ECI promoted to halt the negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement (TTIP) that the EU is negotiating with the United States.
Although this initiative last year collected almost 1.7 million signatures and met all the requisites for acceptance by the Commission, it was finally rejected for two reasons: “The EU argued, firstly, that negotiations on this treaty are a preparatory stage without any direct effect on citizens; furthermore, they argued, because it was not possible to demand action against any measure – only purposeful action can be requested; in a positive light i.e. you can ask to have a law or regulation introduced but not to block legislation”, says Michael Efler, spokesman for this ECI.
Following this refusal, the promoters of the ECI against TTIP maintain an appeal lodged before the European Court of Justice, which has yet to rule.
The real difficulties of an ECI ever actually going through the European Commission have resulted in completely deflating the spirit in which they were received at the beginning.
If the first year, the legislation allowing ECIs was in force and 16 citizens’ initiatives were filed; in 2013 this dropped to nine; then five in 2014 and only one this year.
Country-by-country, they have also had a very different degree of acceptance. Throughout these three years, most of the proposals have come from committees made up mainly of the French, followed by the Germans, British, Italians and Spaniards. The other nationalities are far behind in the ranking.
“This is one of the pillars to boost confidence in the European institutions, to promote the active participation of citizens of the EU in the process of European decision-making,” said EU Vice President Frans Timmermans.
As for the signatures received by all the citizens initiatives presented, taking together the 31 accepted by the Commission, a total of six million signatures have been received: a very low figure considering the 500 million citizens there are across the 28 Member States.
On the results of the first three years of the European Citizens’ Initiatives, EU Vice President Frans Timmermans said “this is one of the pillars to boost confidence in the European institutions, to promote the active participation of citizens of the EU in the process of European decision-making.”
But despite this triumphant tone, Timmermans admits that the Union “must find innovative ways to encourage more citizens and to use this tool more effectively. It is a very important tool and we must ensure that it is meeting its full potential”.
Among the elements that need changing is the very mechanism for signing initiatives. A total of 55% of signatures have so far been submitted online, although the mechanism is very complex, tedious and confusing, so it discourages the participants themselves: the members of the public.
EU legislation on the ECI states that every three years from its launch an assessment should be made, plus a review to improve its functioning. The first of these assessments, made this year, shows that either the mechanism needs to be reformed, or it must become credible, useful and effective, otherwise it will run the risk of being one of those instruments which looks very promising on paper but lacks any social relevance when it comes to applying them to everyday reality.
Published by:
