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Wednesday, 15 December 2010 - Strasbourg OJ edition

Citizens’ initiative (debate)
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  Anneli Jäätteenmäki, on behalf of the ALDE Group. (FI) Madam President, I wish to thank everyone for their cooperation. This has been a splendidly straightforward process of cooperation. The citizens’ initiative is a welcome addition to active citizenship. I hope that it will be important for provoking political debate. Not all initiatives gain sufficient support, but they can bring new perspectives to the debate.

Parliament wanted to make the citizens’ initiative as user­friendly as possible, and it has mainly succeeded in this. I am especially pleased that the Commission and Parliament will have to organise a public hearing when a million signatures have been collected. This will compel the EU institutions actually to listen to what the signatories have to propose. At the same time, the Commission will have to justify thoroughly to them its possible negative stance.

I would have been pleased if this citizens’ initiative could have been signed not just by these citizens but also by the people who live in each country, but there was not enough support for this.

The significance of the citizens’ initiative will not be seen until it enters into force. I hope that it will some day provoke a wider debate on EU affairs than has been the case today.

 
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