Tag: European Citizens' Initiative

The European Union will soon launch the European Citizens' Initiative, a new tool to enhance participatory democracy and dialogue between the EU institutions and citizens. Staffan Nilsson, president of the European Economic and Social Committee, is confident that the instrument will empower Europeans to deliver collective wisdom.

The European citizens' initiative, one of the main innovations of the Lisbon Treaty to engage the citizens of Europe, is too weak to bridge the democratic gap as it preserves the the legislative monopoly of the European Commission, Switzerland’s leading expert on direct democracy said in an interview with EurActiv.

A consultative EU body representing trade unions and employers is putting together a citizens' initiative to ban unpaid internships. Meanwhile, other initiatives in the pipeline will seek to lower the voting age to 16 in a bid to boost youth participation in active political life.

The rules for the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) will place politically sensitive burdens on the European Commission while offering the European Parliament new opportunities to engage with its voters, argue Corina Stratulat and Janis A. Emmanouilidis, analysts at the European Policy Centre (EPC). Failure to clearly specify not only the potential but also the limits of the ECI could in the end breed popular frustration with the new instrument, which would have detrimental effects across the board, they warn. 

Europe must respect "difficult times" by adopting a budget that reflects austerity measures being introduced by national governments, European Parliament Vice-President Diana Wallis told EurActiv Slovakia in a wide-ranging interview. 

The Belgian EU Presidency wants to secure an inter-institutional deal on implementing the European Citizens' Initiative by December, Belgian State Secretary for European Affairs Olivier Chastel said on Tuesday (20 July), highlighting admissibility criteria and the degree of cross-national support as the most controversial issues. 

EU governments yesterday (14 June) outlined a "general approach" to the European Citizens' Initiative, paving the way for citizens to call on the European Commission to table legislative proposals on specific issues.