EU initiative to help citizens suggest new laws

Irish citizens will soon be able to call directly on the European Commission to make legislative proposals.

One million EU citizens from at least seven countries can call on the European Commission to make laws on matters covered by the EU treaties on issues such as the environment, agriculture, transport or public health.

However, policy areas where the EU has no legal responsibility cannot be registered as Citizens' Initiatives.

It is understood that social media and open-source software will be used to collect the signatures of citizens in areas where they feel changes should be made.

The Citizens' Initiative, part of the Lisbon Treaty, takes effect from April 1.

In a meeting with Irish NGOs and stakeholders in Dublin today, Maros Sefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission explained how it will work in practice.

Commissioner Sefčovič said: "With this European Citizens' Initiative, (ECI) I'm sure we will see more cross-border discussions, more European discussions, especially from younger people.

"This is a way of interaction with citizens and we have tried to make it as user-friendly as possible. The cooperation with social media and the use of open-source software to collect signatures makes sure that many citizens can easily get involved.

"The European Citizens' Initiative can really be an agenda-setting tool. It brings participatory democracy to the heart of European policy making, but it also keeps the checks and balances of our representative system".

Organisers have one year to gather one million signatures from at least seven EU countries, including a minimum threshold from each country, linked to its population size. The threshold equals the number of MEPs in each country, multiplied by 750.

While anyone can sign and be one of the million signatures, their country will only count as one of the seven necessary to kick-off the process if this national threshold is collected.

Each Member State has to put rules in place to allow signatures on the ECI to be verified, usually by looking at a random sample for detailed verification.

The minimum number for Ireland will be 9,000 signatures. In comparison the threshold for the UK will be 54,000 signatures and for Germany, which has the highest threshold, it will be 74,250 signatures.