Seán Kelly (PPE). – Madam President, here we go again. I was pleased to support this report from my colleague. And on the outcome of the Committee of Petitions’ deliberations during 2021.
The focus this week in the Parliament has been on increasing transparency, and rightly so. I believe that the work of the PETI Committee should be emphasised and publicised further.
The Treaties confer on all citizens the right to submit a petition on any matter within the EU’s competences that directly affects them. This provides an important avenue for EU citizens, which I have successfully used myself, on behalf of some constituents.
We must ensure that EU citizens are aware of this right. To be effective, measures aimed at improving transparency and their outcomes must be communicated clearly to citizens.
I welcome the acknowledgement in the report also that when citizens do petition the committee, their request must be dealt with in a timely and consistent manner.
And finally, I just want to compliment yourself, President Dita, for the manner in which you handled today’s voting session. It could have got out of hand. It could have become very boisterous if you hadn’t handled it so firmly. And also it does no harm to see you dealing firmly with colleague ‘snowman’ Dzhambazki and basically make him put away his snowball. Happy Christmas to you all.
Clare Daly (The Left). – Madam President, he must be looking for a big Christmas present or a load of speaking time next year. But in any case, I voted for this file. I think it’s a great committee. Often people are disappointed that their petitions aren’t selected and one of the things that I think we need to look at is the idea that the non-aligned members of the committee, and there are five of them, don’t have the right to nominate any petition. And I think this excludes a whole number of our citizens who would like their petitions heard.
The issue was brought home very clearly to me this week when I was contacted by a Ukrainian student who was very grateful to the European Union for allowing him to travel and study at reduced rates in Latvia and in other European countries. But since the Ukrainian Government changed the rules, preventing male university students from leaving the country, tens of thousands of them have been prevented from pursuing their education. And they have gone online with a really important petition – where they’ve got tens of thousands of signatures – asking for their right to education to be seen through. They’ve got the support of the European students’ unions and, indeed, the Ukrainian student union. So I think this is something that we should use our offices here to help as it is a really important issue.
Mick Wallace (The Left). – Madam President, speaking of the need for transparency, I also think it’s incredibly important. And I want to raise an issue that shows a serious lack of it in Ireland. A group of homeowners from Donegal lodged a petition with the Committee on Petitions relating to what’s called the ‘mica scandal’, where there’s a huge lack of surveillance and regulation on quarries in Donegal, and an inferior concrete block was produced which contained mica, which ended up causing serious damage to over 7 000 houses. And people are looking for some recompense from the Irish Government.
A report was done which was really critical of how quarries were operated – critical of the lack of regulation – but then when the government published the report, they took out a lot of the harsh criticism. These people are looking for some accountability and they want the Irish Government held to account for their lack of transparency on this issue.