Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-12-15-Speech-3-100"
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"en.20101215.6.3-100"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, honourable Members, rapporteurs especially, one of the most important promises of the Treaty of Lisbon was to bring Europe closer to its citizens.
I am convinced that the compromise reached between the institutions is a good one, not only insofar as each institution has managed to win what was dear to it, as we just recalled, but also insofar as it will result in a good regulation which will allow citizens’ initiatives to be organised flexibly and efficiently.
On behalf of the Council, I welcome the will of the other two institutions to take account of the needs and the constraints hanging over the Member States in accomplishing the task that has fallen to them, that of checking the signatures which must obviously be genuine signatures, and ensuring that there is no fraud or manipulation when they are collected.
Furthermore, Member States had to be given enough time to adopt those measures of national law necessary for the regulation to be applied. I obviously understand Parliament’s concern to see the citizens’ initiative implemented as soon as possible and it is one that I share. On the other hand, it is clear that there must be national measures if this initiative is to develop along the right lines and therefore enough time must be left for them to be adopted according to the existing regulatory framework.
Indeed, the Council has always considered that the citizens’ initiative, as an element of citizen participation in European decisions, should go hand-in-hand with the other element, that is, the election of the European Parliament.
Finally, to sum up, I am delighted with the compromise reached in the negotiations and I obviously cannot but recommend that you adopt it at today’s vote and I wish the citizens’ initiative all the success that it is predicted to have. I note that the first initiatives are already under preparation and I hope that a great number of initiatives will give fresh impetus and new ideas to European integration.
I would just like to say another big thank you to everyone for your collaboration on this issue.
I do not believe that I need to list here the examples which have shown us, before and after the signature of the Treaty of Lisbon in December 2009, the extent to which a rapprochement of this nature is necessary. Therefore it is not surprising that any measure that furthers the objective of interesting and involving citizens in European integration is a priority for all the institutions including the Council.
I am therefore particularly keen to be able to address you about the regulation that implements the citizens’ initiative, this flagship innovation of the Treaty of Lisbon as regards improved citizen participation in decisions at European level.
This regulation was, of course, one of the priorities of the Belgian Presidency of the Council as it may be that this citizens’ initiative is the most fitting symbol for the new post-Lisbon role of the citizen in the Union. Through a citizens’ initiative, as the rapporteurs have already said, a million European citizens will be able to submit to the Commission a legislative proposal with the obligation incumbent on the Commission to examine it and express its opinion on it.
We should stop for a moment to appreciate this innovation that we are implementing today which is only the first element, as Mr Lamassoure has said, of participatory democracy at supranational level. Therefore it is not only a first at European level, it is quite simply a first at world level.
Lets us return to the legislative issue we are debating today. I am delighted with the compromise reached on this regulation in the course of the negotiations between the three institutions and, obviously, I too welcome the spirit of cooperation and the will for compromise that prevailed in the three institutions throughout the entire negotiations.
I would, of course, like to thank personally the rapporteurs for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) and the Committee on Petitions (PETI), Mrs Gurmai of course, Mr Lamassoure, Mrs Wallis and Mr Häfner for their efforts and constructive contributions to drafting this regulation.
I am therefore particularly delighted with the vote on Monday in the AFCO Committee, which confirmed the text approved by the institutions. If the up-coming vote confirms the same text ratified by the AFCO Committee, we shall be able to consider this agreement at first reading as a model of fast and efficient legislation at European level. How could we fail, in this respect, to extend our praise also to Commissioner Šefčovič for his availability and pro-activeness.
In short, I feel that, on this matter, we have all benefited from the many opinions expressed at the negotiation table. The European citizen has emerged the winner from this trialogue and from this agreement."@en1
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