The European Citizens’ Initiative to start next week
The official launch of the European Citizens’ Initiative, introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, is scheduled to happen Sunday, the 1st of April. An initiative needs to be supported by at least one million EU citizens coming from at least 7 member states in order to call on the European Commission to start legislative procedures in a subject that is within its jurisdiction.
Through the ECI the European Union enables EU citizens to directly influence the decision-making process. Issues arising from the needs of the citizens can be formulated by citizens and non-governmental organizations themselves, and, if one million signatures from seven member states support the initiative, these are submitted to the EC in writing. It will be the Commission’s duty to verify whether the subject matter of the initiatives falls within EU competences and to identify the legal action required.
Understanding the great potential of the new mechanism, DAHR has adopted a resolution in the spring of 2011 to use the ECI in order to formulate an EU level minority protection framework. The initiative is being prepared in cooperation with the Federative Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) following consultation with other European traditional minorities.
The European Parliament and minority MEPs play a pivotal role in the creation of this framework. Talking about the chances of such a framework and the possibilities offered by the ECI, DAHR’s MEP Csaba Sógor declared: “Through the ECI, the EU sends a message to its citizens. It says that Europe belongs to us all, so people can call the attention of EU institutions to matters that interest them and have not been regulated so far. One such issue is the protection of the rights of traditional minorities: millions of EU citizens belong to traditional minority communities and we are often mentioned on the same page with immigrants and other minorities. We would like to change this faulty perception!”
Understanding the great potential of the new mechanism, DAHR has adopted a resolution in the spring of 2011 to use the ECI in order to formulate an EU level minority protection framework. The initiative is being prepared in cooperation with the Federative Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) following consultation with other European traditional minorities.
The European Parliament and minority MEPs play a pivotal role in the creation of this framework. Talking about the chances of such a framework and the possibilities offered by the ECI, DAHR’s MEP Csaba Sógor declared: “Through the ECI, the EU sends a message to its citizens. It says that Europe belongs to us all, so people can call the attention of EU institutions to matters that interest them and have not been regulated so far. One such issue is the protection of the rights of traditional minorities: millions of EU citizens belong to traditional minority communities and we are often mentioned on the same page with immigrants and other minorities. We would like to change this faulty perception!”
