Citizens Initiative has the potential to give citizens a direct input into European policy and European law making - Roche

"The European Citizens Initiative has the potential to give citizens, for the first time, a direct input into European policy and European law making" Minister Dick Roche told a meeting at European House in Dublin today.

In recent years there has been a perceived disconnect between the institutions of the European and its citizens. One of the main aims of the Lisbon Treaty was to try and bridge this democratic deficit. The Citizens Initiative has the potential to be an important element in bridging that gap.

"There are still questions to be answered as to how the initiative will apply. It is in my view important that the European Union adopts the most liberal approach to implementing the Citizens' initiative. At an informal meeting of European Affairs Ministers I suggested, for example, that the threshold for triggering the initiative should be signatures from one quarter of the Member States rather than, as others have suggested one third of the Member States. The figure of one million signatures from across the entire European Union is the equivalent to 0.2% of the population of the Union. I believe that this same low threshold, 0.2%, should be set for the minimum number of signatures required in each of the Member States from which the petition originates. Anybody whose name appears on the voting register or electoral roll in any of the 27 Member states should be allowed to participate.

In an initiative such as this, it is important that the Union should ensure that the Citizens' Initiative is not subject to abuse. I have suggested, for example, that it will be necessary to ensure that petitions should not be allowed to become a device for fund- raising. It will be necessary to ensure that people who sign the petition are protected. However with a little imagination, protections can be put in place which will not be overly onerness and which will encourage the use of the petition process" Minister Roche said.

The Minister also indicated that he was very pleased with the Presidency Programme which has been put forward by Spain for the first six months of 2010. "The Presidency Priorities - economic recovery, job creation, reinforcing the role of the European Union in the wider world, an expansion of citizens rights and freedoms represent the ideal balance for the current times" Minister Roche concluded.

ENDS.