Rule 201  : Right of petition

1.    Any citizen of the European Union and any natural or legal person residing or having its registered office in a Member State shall have the right to address, individually or in association with other citizens or persons, a petition to Parliament on a matter which comes within the European Union's fields of activity and which affects him, her or it directly.

2.    Petitions to Parliament shall show the name, nationality and permanent address of each petitioner.

3.    Where a petition is signed by several natural or legal persons, the signatories shall designate a representative and deputy representatives who shall be regarded as the petitioners for the purposes of this Title.

Where no such designation has occurred the first signatory or another appropriate person shall be regarded as the petitioners.

4.    Each petitioner may at any time withdraw support for the petition.

After withdrawal of support by all the petitioners the petition shall become null and void.

5.    Petitions must be written in an official language of the European Union.

Petitions written in any other language will be considered only where the petitioner has attached a translation in an official language. Parliament's correspondence with the petitioner shall employ the official language in which the translation is drawn up.

The Bureau may decide that petitions and correspondence with petitioners may be drafted in other languages used in a Member State.

6.    Petitions shall be entered in a register in the order in which they are received if they comply with the conditions laid down in paragraph 2; those that do not shall be filed, and the petitioner shall be informed of the reasons therefor.

7.    Petitions entered in the register shall be forwarded by the President to the committee responsible, which shall first establish the admissibility or otherwise of the petition in accordance with Article 194 of the EC Treaty.

If the committee responsible fails to reach a consensus on the admissibility of the petition, it shall be declared admissible at the request of at least one quarter of the members of the committee.

8.    Petitions declared inadmissible by the committee shall be filed; the petitioner shall be informed of the decision and the reasons therefor. Where possible, alternative means of redress may be recommended.

9.    Petitions, once registered, shall as a general rule become public documents, and the name of the petitioner and the contents of the petition may be published by Parliament for reasons of transparency.

10.    Notwithstanding the provisions contained in paragraph 9, the petitioner may request that his or her name be withheld in order to protect his or her privacy, in which case Parliament must respect such a request.

Where the petitioner's complaint cannot be investigated for reasons of anonymity, the petitioner shall be consulted as to the further steps to be taken.

11.    The petitioner may request that his or her petition be treated confidentially, in which case suitable precautions will be taken by Parliament to ensure that the contents are not made public. The petitioner will be informed under which precise conditions this provision is to apply.

12.    Where the committee deems it appropriate, it may refer the matter to the Ombudsman.

13.    Petitions addressed to Parliament by natural or legal persons who are neither citizens of the European Union nor reside in a Member State nor have their registered office in a Member State shall be registered and filed separately. The President shall send a monthly record of such petitions received during the previous month, indicating their subject matter, to the committee responsible for considering petitions, which may request those which it wishes to consider.