Europe United first to sign European Citizens’ Initiative

Mikael Latreille, Europe United Board member, was the first to officially sign the petition of the European Citizens’ Initiative which launched its signature campaign on 9 November 2006 at the European Parliament.

“Citizens are the heart of democracy. They must be given the option to petition those that govern them and launch debates on issues that are important to them if those in power do not do so,” said Mr Latreille.

The European Citizens’ Initiative is a campaign whose goal is to establish the right of European citizens to petition the European Commission, which at present is the only European institution with the right to initiate law in the Union. The right to petition the Commission was included in article 47 of the European constitution, but the rejection of the constitution by French and Dutch votes shelved that right to the cupboard.

Starting with the signatures collected at the press conference, ECI is seeking one million signatures which will be presented to the European Council and the Commission during the German presidency of the European Union in the spring of 2006. The aim is to implement the right of citizens’ initiative by the end of 2007.

“With this campaign we want to enable citizens to make proposals for concrete changes in European law and politics,” said Carsten Berg, General Coordinator of the campaign, “It would be the first trans-national element of democracy where European citizens’ get together and change the way Europe works.”

The petition reads as follows: “We, the undersigned, want the European Union to give legal force to the European Citizens’ Initiative, where one million European citizens can call on the European Commission to propose a change to European law.”

What Europe United members can do
We urge all European United members to sign the electronic petition available on the front page of their website. You can also download a petition in your language, gather signatures and send it back to the campaign. A number of our members have already signed the petition. Members can also contact the regional coordinators to get involve on the ground.

Europe United supports the European Citizens’ Initiative. At present Europe United as an organisation cannot donate money since all the money in our account went towards organising the convention in Brussels which took place on 28-29 October. Should we have enough money to donate before the end of the campaign we will certainly doing so.

Quotes from participating Members of Parliament
Gerard Onesta, Vice-President of the Parliament (MEP, France): “We need two things: a piece of paper, a pen and from there democracy begins.”

Edith Mastenbroek, (MEP, Netherlands) “The elements of the constitution that do work and that could help us out of this gridlock deserve our full political support.”

“This is not the first recent citizens’ initiative. There is already one that has received a million signatures. It was a request to the European Commission to start an initiative on our two seats. Should it be here in Brussels or in Strasbourg?”

“I don’t see a reason not to do this and I don’t understand what people that don’t agree with this are afraid of. You could say that there is the argument that it would be cherry picking from the constitution. This is a very good cherry and I think we should pick it so I fully support this initiative.”

Alexander Alvaro, (MEP, Germany) “Concerning our initiative that we have done [one seat initiative] it’s quite remarkable that it’s been two months [since we handed it to the Commission] and we haven’t received any sort of answer. The Commission and Council are not dealing with the issue. Although article 47 is not in force there has to be procedures of how to follow up with citizens’ initiatives, just receiving it is a nice gesture but it doesn’t solve the problem we have right now.”

More on the European Citizens’ Initiative
One of our very own members, Gabriel Fragnière, former rector of the College of Europe, actively supports the campaign. An interview by the Robin Good Media Network can be seen in the page below.

> Go to Robin Good Media Network article

The European Citizens' Initiative Website

> www.citizens-initiative.eu

Pictures captions:
Picture 1: Europe United Board member Mikael Latreille signing the European Citizens Initiative petition held by Gerard Onesta, Vice-President of the European Parliament.

Picture 2: Europe United Board member Jean Pepi follows suit in signing the petition.