The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Commission Communication of 8 October 2010 on smart regulation in the European Union (COM(2010)0543), announcing that the Commission would carry out a review of its consultation policy in 2011,

–  having regard to the Commission Communication of 13 April 2011 entitled ‘Single Market Act – Twelve levers to boost growth and strengthen confidence – ’Working together to create new growth'' (COM(2011)0206),

–  having regard to the Cracow declaration adopted at the Single Market Forum on 3-4 October 2011,

–  having regard to the written question of 14 March 2011 to the Commission, entitled ‘Commission communications strategy / Languages for public consultation’ (E-002327/2011),

–  having regard to Rule 110(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.  whereas the Commission has proposed designating 2013 as the European Year of Citizens in order to raise people's awareness of the benefits and rights afforded by EU citizenship and stimulate their active participation in Union policy-making;

B.  whereas disabled people have greater difficulties since they need accessible formats to facilitate communication;

C.  whereas the involvement of the public is a fundamental component of democratic governance, whereas well designed and communicated public consultations are one of the main tools giving substance to the EU's policy of transparency, and whereas to date their potential for bridging the communication and information gap between citizens and the EU has not been fully exploited;

1.  Calls on the Commission to actively seek communication with ordinary citizens by making full use of existing communication channels to distribute consultations to the general public and conduct them, in a targeted way, in conjunction with NGOs and other stakeholders;

2.  Urges the Commission to ensure that every EU citizen's right to address the EU institutions in any of the EU official languages is fully respected and implemented by ensuring that public consultations are available in all EU official languages, that all consultations are treated equally and that there is no language-based discrimination between consultations;

3.  Asks the Commission to ensure that all consultations are understandable to ordinary citizens and are carried out over a sufficiently long period of time to allow for increased participation;

4.  Urges the Commission to guarantee the right of disabled people to be consulted using accessible formats;

5.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission.