Debate: Implementation of the Regulations on the European citizens' initiative
Date: MONDAY, 12 JUNE 2023
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

Let me start by providing you with a few key figures covering the reporting period. Under the new Regulation on the citizens’ initiative, the Commission has registered 31 initiatives, and only one request for registration had to be refused because it did not meet the criteria set out in the Regulation. This is a very positive result, which is a strong indication that the new rules are working well. More initiatives are also collecting the required 1 million signatures. Out of the 44 initiatives that have been collecting signatures during this period of time, five were successful. And finally, as you are aware, the Commission has received a record number of five successful initiatives for examination and has replied to three of them, with two more replies to follow next month. On that basis, we see that the rules are in general fit for purpose. Moreover, we have also successfully managed the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the first year of application. And thanks to the cooperation with this House and with the Council, temporary measures allowing to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on initiatives could be swiftly adopted. As a result, all the initiatives that were collecting support at the time could benefit from extensions of up to 12 months. And I am glad to report that three of those initiatives managed to reach the required threshold of 1 million statements of support. The review also reveals the particularly positive contribution of the good functioning of the initiative of some of the novelties introduced. I think the report highlights a few of them and, based on the input that we have collected, I can add some other positive new elements. Organisers particularly appreciate the six-month time after registration to prepare their collection campaign. They also appreciate the shift of most of the responsibility for the protection of personal data to the Commission when using the central online collection system. Citizens using the central online collection system also report high levels of satisfaction with the system. And I think it is quite reassuring that the organisers have a strong and reliable tool for the online collection of signatures and that it also meets high security standards. I think one would expect that when handling large amounts of personal data. And we continue to improve the system to meet the needs of the organisers even better. We’ve also had positive feedback on the usefulness of a European citizens’ initiative forum, which assists organisers during all the steps of their efforts. The review also allows us to identify concrete areas to make further improvements based on the feedback of citizens, organisers and other stakeholders. We share your view that the communication efforts to raise general awareness about the European citizens’ initiative should continue. And we welcome, of course, that Parliament takes upon itself to be part of this. The Commission’s renewed effort on citizen participation following the Conference on the Future of Europe and, in particular, the new online one-stop shop for citizen engagement, to which the European citizens’ initiative will belong, will, I think, be a good opportunity to raise the visibility for people to be aware. We note your call to provide financial support to organisers of initiatives. Just one point to say is that initiatives can already now apply for funding under existing EU programmes, with, of course, the criteria that comes with each call. For instance, the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme funds projects in the area of citizens’ engagement and at this moment a call is actually ongoing. Finally, I would like to underline the excellent cooperation with Parliament during the examination phase of the five valid initiatives we received in the reporting period. The public hearing, the plenary debates in your House, give visibility to the initiatives and provide a forum for debating citizens’ proposals. We thus welcome Parliament’s commitment to further strengthening the involvement during this phase of the process. Let me close my intervention by stressing once again that the Commission remains fully committed to ensuring that the revised European citizens’ initiative achieves its full potential as a tool to foster debate and citizens’ participation at European level. We will carefully examine the recommendations included in the report presented today and take them into account in our review report, which we intend to adopt in the second half of this year.