Citizens chance to sway commission

YOUR columnist Terry Prone (April 21) correctly highlights the citizens’ initiative as an interesting aspect of the Lisbon treaty.

If passed, the treaty will require the European Commission to consider proposals from citizens backed by a petition from one million people from a significant number of European countries.

While the commission won’t be forced to accept such proposals, it creates a means for concerns which are not on the radar of the main European parties or national governments, but have considerable support, to be put on the agenda.

Even 10 years ago such a system would be largely impractical in view of the logistics of a petition system across a number of European states speaking different languages and requiring all to sign a piece of paper.

However, the advent of the internet will allow such a system to work. The exact mechanisms (ie, how many countries do petitioners need to be from, how long the commission will need to respond, etc) are rightly being left to subsequent legislation, as this may well need to be ironed out over future years.

After all, it does not make sense to require a new treaty just to change the number of significant countries from seven to 10 or some such.

In my view, this is an important development which will improve the relationship between ordinary citizens and the commission.

It is one of the reasons I am voting yes to Lisbon.

John J Carroll

The Old Mill

Ratoath

Co Meath