Acta literal de los debates

Lunes 12 de junio de 2023 - Estrasburgo

21. Aplicación de los Reglamentos sobre la iniciativa ciudadana europea (breve presentación)

  Die Präsidentin. – Als nächster Punkt der Tagesordnung folgt die kurze Darstellung des Berichts von Loránt Vincze über die Durchführung der Verordnungen über die Europäische Bürgerinitiative (2022/2206(INI) (A9-0182/2023).

  Loránt Vincze, rapporteur. – Madam President, Madam Commissioner, the European Citizens Initiative is an agenda setting, instrument generating debate. But more importantly, it is the only participatory instrument at EU level which can lead to a proposal of a legal act of the Union. And this is the aspect that remains at the forefront of the European Parliament’s efforts. We must make sure that the voice of over 1 million Europeans, a very big democratic base, expressed during the signature of an initiative, is not in vain.

My report contains appreciation towards the Commission in organising the process, but it also points out shortcomings and presents recommendations. The revised ECI Regulation has undoubtedly lowered the procedural hurdles for organisers and supporters. Following several cases lost before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Commission has ultimately made it easier for ECIs to meet the necessary legal requirements and to benefit from partial registration. The central online collection system has also been improved over the years. The Commission unit responsible for ECIs has also run a number of communication campaigns, as did the European Economic and Social Committee, in order to make this instrument more known among citizens. Response during the Covid period was fast and useful. The temporary ECI Regulation that we swiftly approved in Parliament extended time limits for the different stages of the ECI process in response to the pandemic.

The revised ECI Regulation also strengthened the political dimension by introducing a mandatory plenary debate in Parliament and extended and introduced the mandatory plenary debate in Parliament with the possibility of adopting a resolution before the Commission presents its assessment.

However, we have to acknowledge that the ECI instrument still falls short of its democratic potential. It has not only limited visibility, but more importantly, low effectiveness in terms of proposals by the Commission for Legal Acts of the Union. This risks weakening the participatory mechanism. The report proposes several ways to improve the ECIs. First of all, a proper dialogue should be established with all organisers. No discrimination should be allowed based on their goals and the best ways to achieve them. This could already be initiated during the collection period. The Commission needs to carry out a thorough assessment of each valid ECI in a well argued, clear, comprehensible and detailed manner. More importantly, this assessment should be on the subject of the valid ECIs. Besides the central online collection system, allowing the collection on third-party systems again should also be assessed.

Running an ECI is an extremely difficult and costly process. There should be a strong consideration of financial support for successful ECIs to reward their efforts. After all, their democratic involvement arguably has more impact than many civil society actions generously supported by the EU budget.

Parliament also aims to increase its engagement in the ECI process. It commits to vote a parliamentary resolution after every valid ECI and after every Commission communication, setting out its legal and political conclusions and to change its rules of procedure to allow for this. One last idea about the ECI in the framework of other EU consultative instruments: I agree with all my esteemed shadow rapporteur colleagues, whom I warmly thank for their contribution and cooperation, when they say more in-depth discussion is needed on the concerns expressed in valid ECIs. I would, however, be extremely cautious about mixing this very special tool with clear rules and obligations with other more ad hoc consultation methods like the Commission-led citizens panels and thus diluting its effects.

Spontane Wortmeldungen

  Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D). – Señora presidenta, este debate en el Pleno acerca de la implantación de la iniciativa ciudadana europea —lo que conocemos en el Derecho de los Estados miembros como «iniciativa legislativa popular»— está conectado con la preocupación que mostró la Conferencia sobre el Futuro de Europa acerca la calidad de la democracia en la Unión Europea, entendida como una unión de Estados y de ciudadanos en la que hay cabida para la reforma del sistema electoral. Sobre esta reforma se debate también en este Pleno, precisamente para crear una lista transnacional y una circunscripción paneuropea en las elecciones europeas o para recuperar el principio de Spitzenkandidat, que implica que la persona que aspira a presidir la Comisión debe haber competido por ello en las urnas.

Pero, con respecto al Reglamento sobre la iniciativa ciudadana europea, lo que queda patente es que, hasta ahora, su rendimiento ha sido manifiestamente mejorable y que no han sido pocas las ocasiones en que se han recabado firmas —en siete Estados miembros de la Unión se recabó un millón de firmas— con un propósito antieuropeo, es decir, manifiestamente reaccionario, contrario a los valores europeos.

Por tanto, si queremos marcar el mensaje, tenemos que ir en la dirección correcta: el refuerzo de la ciudadanía y la correcta utilización de la iniciativa ciudadana en la Unión Europea.

  Stanislav Polčák (PPE). – Madam Present, ladies and gentlemen, the European Citizens’ Initiative is an exceptionally unique tool for citizens that enables them to directly influence political decisions. Unfortunately, the majority of society lacks sufficient awareness of this initiative and its potential.

Improving awareness of the European Citizens’ Initiative is crucial for engaging as many citizens as possible in European decision-making. It is imperative that the communication strategies are effective and utilise available channels for disseminating information.

Cooperation with non-governmental organisations and educational institutions is also necessary for enhancing awareness. We should support the development of educational programmes and materials that focus on the European Citizens’ Initiative and participatory democracy.

  Mick Wallace (The Left). – Madam President, the European Citizens’ Initiative, in theory, is a democratic, participatory instrument at EU level that has faced many hurdles in addressing the democratic deficits of the EU. Revisions of the initiative remove some of the bureaucratic obstacles which had been previously riddled with legal and practical issues.

But the discretionary powers of the Commission are certainly a major challenge still. The Commission retains discretion as to the actions it intends to take, if any, according to the regulation. An unelected body with absolute authority over implementing initiatives isn’t too compatible with the idea of direct democracy, as promoted by the citizens’ initiatives.

So how can European citizens initiatives address democratic deficit in the EU?

  Clare Daly (The Left). – Madam President, I think there’s some very good ideas in the report, and they are the absolute minimum really to improve on what could be a good way to make citizens feel much more empowered. And I’d like to pay tribute to all of the people and all of the groups who’ve got involved in this process to date.

One of the initiatives which made us, and we all know how much work it takes and how much dedication, was the measure to ban the shark fin trade, which we celebrated last week on World Ocean Day, and reminded ourselves of the importance on how we need our sharks.

But there’s no point in citizens taking this effort if the outcome is not going to be delivered upon. Now, this vehicle is trumpeted as a way in which citizens can play a direct role in policymaking.

If that’s to be the case, then the outcome has to result in an action at the end of it. And I think the measure has to be extended to go beyond just initiating legislation, but also stopping measures that are already in place. It’s a good step in the right direction.

(Ende der spontanen Wortmeldungen)

  Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the Commission. – Madam President, honourable Members, first of all I would like to thank Rapporteur Vincze for leading the preparation of this report, with a timely and useful contribution of our review of the European citizens’ initiative Regulations. You know better than anyone that still this year the Commission will present the first report on the functioning of the reformed citizens’ initiative since 2020. Preparing this, we are collecting views of stakeholders and citizens as to how they see these rules. The report of the European Parliament, because of that, comes at the very right moment as we are analysing our results and drawing conclusions.

Let me start by providing you with a few key figures covering the reporting period. Under the new Regulation on the citizens’ initiative, the Commission has registered 31 initiatives, and only one request for registration had to be refused because it did not meet the criteria set out in the Regulation. This is a very positive result, which is a strong indication that the new rules are working well.

More initiatives are also collecting the required 1 million signatures. Out of the 44 initiatives that have been collecting signatures during this period of time, five were successful. And finally, as you are aware, the Commission has received a record number of five successful initiatives for examination and has replied to three of them, with two more replies to follow next month. On that basis, we see that the rules are in general fit for purpose.

Moreover, we have also successfully managed the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the first year of application. And thanks to the cooperation with this House and with the Council, temporary measures allowing to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on initiatives could be swiftly adopted. As a result, all the initiatives that were collecting support at the time could benefit from extensions of up to 12 months. And I am glad to report that three of those initiatives managed to reach the required threshold of 1 million statements of support.

The review also reveals the particularly positive contribution of the good functioning of the initiative of some of the novelties introduced. I think the report highlights a few of them and, based on the input that we have collected, I can add some other positive new elements. Organisers particularly appreciate the six-month time after registration to prepare their collection campaign. They also appreciate the shift of most of the responsibility for the protection of personal data to the Commission when using the central online collection system.

Citizens using the central online collection system also report high levels of satisfaction with the system. And I think it is quite reassuring that the organisers have a strong and reliable tool for the online collection of signatures and that it also meets high security standards. I think one would expect that when handling large amounts of personal data.

And we continue to improve the system to meet the needs of the organisers even better. We’ve also had positive feedback on the usefulness of a European citizens’ initiative forum, which assists organisers during all the steps of their efforts. The review also allows us to identify concrete areas to make further improvements based on the feedback of citizens, organisers and other stakeholders.

We share your view that the communication efforts to raise general awareness about the European citizens’ initiative should continue. And we welcome, of course, that Parliament takes upon itself to be part of this. The Commission’s renewed effort on citizen participation following the Conference on the Future of Europe and, in particular, the new online one-stop shop for citizen engagement, to which the European citizens’ initiative will belong, will, I think, be a good opportunity to raise the visibility for people to be aware.

We note your call to provide financial support to organisers of initiatives. Just one point to say is that initiatives can already now apply for funding under existing EU programmes, with, of course, the criteria that comes with each call. For instance, the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme funds projects in the area of citizens’ engagement and at this moment a call is actually ongoing.

Finally, I would like to underline the excellent cooperation with Parliament during the examination phase of the five valid initiatives we received in the reporting period. The public hearing, the plenary debates in your House, give visibility to the initiatives and provide a forum for debating citizens’ proposals. We thus welcome Parliament’s commitment to further strengthening the involvement during this phase of the process.

Let me close my intervention by stressing once again that the Commission remains fully committed to ensuring that the revised European citizens’ initiative achieves its full potential as a tool to foster debate and citizens’ participation at European level. We will carefully examine the recommendations included in the report presented today and take them into account in our review report, which we intend to adopt in the second half of this year.

  Die Präsidentin. – Damit ist dieser Tagesordnungspunkt geschlossen.

Die Abstimmung findet am Dienstag, 13. Juni 2023, statt.

Schriftliche Erklärungen (Artikel 171)

  Alin Mituța (Renew), în scris. – Raportul final al Conferinței privind Viitorul Europei arată o preocupare reală a cetățenilor pentru modalitățile în care se pot implica în procesul decizional la nivelul UE.

Inițiativa cetățenească europeană este, fără îndoială, un instrument bun pentru democrația europeană, însă are o vizibilitate redusă, semnăturile sunt greu de strâns și eficiența este scăzută.

Nu putem să avem un instrument eficient fără sprijin financiar adecvat, fără campanii de conștientizare și fără utilizarea noilor tehnologii.

De aceea, Comisia ar trebui să ofere sprijin financiar progresiv pentru inițiativele care ating anumite praguri în colectarea semnăturilor, încurajând astfel un proces bazat pe performanță. O promovare eficientă se poate realiza prin mai multe campanii de comunicare și programe de educație civică. Este nevoie, de asemenea, de utilizarea noilor tehnologii în colectarea semnăturilor, cum ar fi sistemele eID. Crearea unui hub al tuturor instrumentelor de participare cetățenească utilizate în Uniunea Europeană ar ușura accesul la acestea.

Inițiativa Cetățenească Europeană va deveni în viitor un instrument mai ușor de utilizat și eficient. Îi îndemn pe cetățeni să-l folosească, să-și facă auzite vocile și să aducă schimbări în Uniunea Europeană.