See no citizens, hear no citizens, speak to no citizens – the institutional approach to the European citizens’ initiative (ECI)

The ECI Monkeys

A friend pointed me to the Working Document on a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the citizens’ initiative from the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs. Rapporteurs for this are Zita Gurmai and Alain Lamassoure.

This is not the first time I’ve dealt with this topic – I was critical of the Commission’s original proposal in April, and other Eurobloggers were united in their disdain. Maroš Šefčovič is the Commissioner responsible – hence why he’s pictured above.

Yet what have Gurmai and Lamassoure come up with? Surely the European Parliament should know a thing or two about democracy?

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A friend pointed me to the Working Document on a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the citizens' initiative from the European Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs. Rapporteurs for this are Zita Gurmai and Alain Lamassoure. This is not the first time I've dealt with this topic - I was critical of the Commission's original proposal in April, and other Eurobloggers were united in their disdain. Maroš Šefčovič is the Commissioner responsible - hence why he's pictured above. Yet what have Gurmai and Lamassoure come up with? Surely the European Parliament should know a thing or two about democracy? Seems not... Here are a few choice quotes from the document: 5.1. Would it make sense to ask for the organisers to have the support of some directly elected persons who would endorse the initiative? If so, how many of them should support it and should they come from at least a quarter of the MS as well or would it just introduce an unwelcome dose of representative democracy into the process? 5.2. Should we ask the organisers to provide a deposit which would naturally be given back to them if the ECI turns out to be successful - ? 10. In order to protect the Commission from being accused of deciding on the admissibility of an ECI on political grounds rather than on legal ones - which would undermine its credibility and cast doubt over the whole process -, it might make sense for it to not be the only organ that will make this decision in the first place. This would avoid the Commission being both judge and jury and it would also prevent it from being overwhelmed. 11. It might be more appropriate to appoint an ad hoc "wise people committee", gathering some experts, scholars and/or jurists, so that they would be as impartial as possible. So there we have it. Members of the European Parliament, when preparing a working document about the citizens' initiative, ask whether it should be necessary for elected representatives to support it, whether financial means need to be demonstrated, and then propose to slow down and bureaucratise the process by getting a bunch of "wise men" to advise on the admissibility of an initiative. As if that were not enough they propose no change to the 1 year limit to collect signatures (have either them ever tried to collect 1 million signatures?) and seem to confuse themselves about whether individuals or organisations (legal persons) should be doing the collecting. The only positive point is that they state the admissibility check should be performed at the 5000 signatures stage (rather than 300000 as proposed by the Commission). Now I know this is only a working document, but seriously, this document is dire. Utterly dire. How do 2 MEPs even think to raise the issue citizens would be asked to put forward a deposit to be able to propose a citizens initiative? While the Commission's original proposal seemed to seek to distance that institution from responsibility, this working document from the EP aims to pour cold water on any notion that participatory democracy, as if that could somehow challenge the house elected by the people. [UPDATE - 28.7.2010] The European Citizens Action Services are running a short questionnaire about the ECI - do head over to their site and answer the few short questions!

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European Commission, obsoleted by the lightening pace at which the Internet changes expectations

On 7th January 2009, Tom Steinberg (founder of MySociety in the UK – more about them in a moment) penned a blog entry entitled “Top 5 Internet Priorities for the Next Government (any next Government)“. The whole thing is worth a read yet it’s the first part of the first paragraph that strikes me as the most apt:

The most scary thing about the Internet for your government is not pedophiles, terrorists or viruses, whatever you may have read in the papers. It is the danger of your administration being silently obsoleted by the lightening pace at which the Internet changes expectations.

So why is the European Commission subject of my ire in this blog entry – in connection with Steinberg’s words about expectations?

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On 7th January 2009, Tom Steinberg (founder of MySociety in the UK - more about them in a moment) penned a blog entry entitled "Top 5 Internet Priorities for the Next Government (any next Government)". The whole thing is worth a read yet it's the first part of the first paragraph that strikes me as the most apt: The most scary thing about the Internet for your government is not pedophiles, terrorists or viruses, whatever you may have read in the papers. It is the danger of your administration being silently obsoleted by the lightening pace at which the Internet changes expectations. So why is the European Commission subject of my ire in this blog entry - in connection with Steinberg's words about expectations? I'm a little late to write something about it, but I'm on about the Commission's proposal for the implementation of the European Citizens' Initiative set out in the Treaty of Lisbon. The text of the Commission draft is here (PDF). I've tried to decipher the text together with a few EU nerds (we're speaking about it on the second day of re:publica in Berlin) and frankly it's hard to find words to describe how totally and utterly lousy the whole draft is. The contrast with MySociety's 10 Downing Street petitions system could not be more stark. I agree with the critiques raised by Eurosocialiste, Bit More Complicated and European Citizen - the system, as currently drafted, is totally unworkable and I cannot see how any organisation or individual could possibly manage to comply with all of the criteria and then get an initiative accepted. Let's not forget - even if an initiative is declared valid the Commission only has to consider the thing, it's not even obliged to act. So to set the bar so high right from the start, including requiring ID card or social security numbers from signatories, is utterly ludicrous. I also particular like Annex II of the draft that requires those submitting a petition to state what legal base their initiative has - how many European citizens even know what a legal base is? The draft is stodgy, unimaginative, unhelpful, and allows the Commission to essentially wash its hands of responsibility for anything that might be produced by the initiative. It's dire. Euractiv asked a couple of MEPs for some bla-bla about the initiative (at the bottom here) - the EP will after all have to co-decide on the legislation (interesting to see who will be the rapporteur at least). Syed Kamall, Tory MEP and Vice Chair of the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, said: This initiative should give power to the people, not to lobbyists and interest groups Yes, too right Syed, although you might argue that's a bit of a cheap comment coming from the European Parliament, the EU institution most reliant on lobbyists of all kinds... If you wanted to have a major impact on EU legislation what are you going to do? Jump through 101 hoops to get a citizens' initiative off the ground, or pay a PA company to lobby in the corridors of power? The latter will for sure remain easier. So, in short, the internet gives citizens the power to network like never before, raises expectations as never before, and petitions with more than 1 million signatures have already been organised (see the excellent Oneseat.eu for example). Yet with scant grasp of everyday realities, and absolutely no intention to do anything profound for the cause of European democracy, the Commission's draft for the European Citizens' Initiative seems to make the thing obsolete before it has even started. Photo: d ha rm e sh “CITY OF BLINDING LIGHTS” July 31, 2006 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution

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