DIRECT IMPLICATION OF EUROPEAN CITIZENS IN NORMATIVE PROCESS WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

Direct participation, being understood as the possibility for non-institutional actors to take part in decision-making process, became the main legal mechanisms to ensure voice to citizens or persons affected in decision-making procedures of the EU institutions and bodies. The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI), as introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, allows citizens to request new EU legislation once a million signatures from seven member states have been collected asking the European Commission to do so. Two basic principles have to be respected for a proposal to be admissible. It must concern "a matter where a legal act of the Union can be adopted for the purpose of implementing the Treaties" and it has to fall "within the framework of the powers of the Commission to make a proposal," according to the regulation. In this context, further reflection should be made on what the added-value of the ECI is in general and how could it be an added value in the perspective of the European Citizenship. The analysis of the regulation on ECI reveals that one of the main it is to facilitate the collection of statements of support and organising a European-wide debate with the expectation that it will create enough political echoes for action. Also, more emphasis should be put on the final stage of the procedure, by providing more guarantees for quickly receiving an affirmative answer from the European Commission. Therefore, ECI represents a new democratic tool in order to decrease the democratic deficit in the European Union.