EUROPEAN CITIZEN INITIATIVE

Objective: Bringing Europe closer to its citizens

Facing a certain political disengagement from the citizens of the European Union, the European citizen initiative (ICE), a new tool installing a participative democracy, offering citizens the opportunity to actively participate in the decision-making of European political matters.
This intends to compensate for the growing gap between Europe and its citizens. With ICE, the latter are invited to directly address legislative bills to the European Commission. To do this, there must be one million citizens representing a quarter of the states of the European Union (7 states) to call upon the European Commission, in order to propose a bill before the European Parliament. In other terms, it is a sort of citizens’ “right to petition” the European Commission.

Established by the Treaty of Lisbon (article 11, paragraph 4), the ICE went into effect on 1 April 2012. A European citizen initiative can deal with all types of issues (the environment, agriculture, etc.) as long as it is covered by one of the areas of expertise of the Commission and does not go against the fundamental democratic values of the European Union. For example, it is impossible to propose an ICE asking for a revision to a treaty, or the reinstatement of the death penalty. In the same vein, all abusive, obscure, or persecutory propositions will be rejected.

Warning: Do not mistake the European citizen initiative and the right to petition. If the petition is addressed to the European Parliament, the ICE calls directly to the European Commission.