Citizens' Initiative: progress towards participatory democracy in Europe

The Citizens' Initiative comes into force on 1 April of this year. Introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, this new instrument will allow citizens to direct issues to the European Commission with a view to adopting appropriate action. A citizens' committee of at least seven people originating from seven different Member States will be required to record an initiative, and the one million signatures required must come from at least seven Member States. The organizers of initiatives who have collected one million signatures will be allowed to request a public hearing, to be organized in the European Parliament .

Andrew Duff, ALDE coordinator in the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs, said: "The Citizens Initiative is one of the most innovative features of the Lisbon treaty and is well designed to bolster the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. Now we need European citizens to become actively engaged in making useful legislative proposals aimed at deepening European unity and in making the EU more effective. I look forward to the first ECI which says 'Yes to Europe!'".

Anneli Jäätteenmäki (Keskusta Suomen, Finland), ALDE spokesperson on the report establishing the Citizens' Initiative, added: "This is one of the means to fill the gap between the EU decision-makers and the citizens and to increase discussion on European issues. I hope citizens use this opportunity to express their opinions on issues that have been forgotten on the European level, and that Commission takes them seriously."

Edward McMillan Scott (LibDem, UK), ALDE spokesman for the monitoring of the Citizens' Initiative in the Petition's committee concluded: "The Citizens Initiative is potentially an important element in re-engaging the concerned citizen with Europe's decision-making, providing that the ECI mechanism allows the individual genuinely and without restraint to express his or her priority concerns about how the EU itself spends their money or seeks to act in their interest."