Teething troubles for ECIs

Report shows European Citizens Initiatives are not meeting all the necessary conditions set at their launch one year ago.

A year on from the launch of European Citizens’ Initiatives (ECI), which allow people to request European Union-wide legislation on subjects of their choosing, and not one ECI has met all of the necessary conditions, according to a progress report.

Maroš Šefčovič, the European commissioner for inter-institutional relations and administration, said that the ECI project was “a success. Not an unqualified success, certainly, as there have been some…teething problems – but a success nevertheless.”

Those who can muster at least one million signatures from at least seven member states of the European Union can urge the European Commission to come forward with legislation. The Commission is obliged to respond to the request.

Šefčovič said that one of the 25 ECIs that the Commission has received has reached the one-million signatures threshold, but not yet fulfilled the conditions on geographical spread. The Right2Water ECI urges the Commission to “propose legislation implementing the human right to water and sanitation”.

He said that 16 ECIs had been registered with the Commission, with two of those having since been withdrawn. The ECIs cover subjects including harmonisation of rules on media ownership, suspension of the EU’s climate and energy package, animal rights, and voting rights, Šefčovič said. The rest of the 25 requests were rejected by the Commission because they did not fall within the scope of the ECIs.

Šefčovič said that, since their launch on 1 April 2012 there had been a number of teething problems with ECIs, with the technology, the cost of spreading the message, the rules for collecting the signatures, and the deadline of one year proving off-putting to many citizens.

Gerald Häfner, a, German Green MEP, said that ECIs were not just “an accessory to the EU-proper” but an important part of the democratic process. “The child hasn’t yet learned to walk…but it has taken its first steps,” Häfner said.

To set up an ECI you must set up an organising committee, with at least one member from each of at least seven member states.  The committee has to request the registration of its ECI proposal with the Commission on a dedicated website. It must provide details of the subject matter and objective of the ECI, plus detailed information on the organisers involved, and how the ECI is funded.

Once the ECI has been registered with the Commission, the organisers have a maximum of 12 months to collect the required one million signatures. Once the one million signatures are collected, they have to be validated and certified by the national authorities, which are given three months to complete the process.

An official review of the ECI legislation is due in early 2015.

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