7 Amendments of Dominique BILDE related to 2017/2024(INL)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Believes that public awareness of the European Citizen Initiative (ECI) should be enhanced, and that it should be promoted as a tool of direct participatory democracy; stresses that the complexity of the procedures relating to the ECI has helped to make this tool opaque and rather ineffective;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Points out that since the launch of the first ECI in 2012, no initiative has resulted in a legislative proposal being presented by the Commission, and until now only three citizens’ initiatives out of the 51 submitted since 2012 have managed to comply with all the conditions set by the Commission; feels that this low success rate is due to the complexity of the procedures relating to the ECI and that it is damaging to the legitimacy not only of the tool, but also of the Union;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Points out that the ECI cannot have greater legitimacy while the functioning of the Union and certain legislative procedures also continue to suffer from a democratic deficit; stresses, in this context, that the revision of the ECI must be accompanied by a paradigm shift on the part of the Commission, particularly as regards national referendums, but also as regards freedom of expression or the signing of free trade agreements, which continue to be adopted in spite of the public’s overwhelming opposition;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Recommends decreasing the minimum number of Member States that citizens must come from, in order to ease access to the ECI, especially following the withdrawal of the UK from the Union; feels the need, moreover, to review the method for calculating the number of nationals who are required to sign per Member State, given that the current method makes access to the ECI even more difficult and establishes a situation of de-facto inequality among the Member States;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Recommends evaluating the possibility of lowering the minimum age for eligibility to support a citizen’s initiative proposal to 16 years, in order to encourage youth participation, while taking account of the fact that such a decision should be accompanied in the Member States by sufficiently advanced civic instruction courses, in order to ensure that young people’s participation is backed up by adequate knowledge of their social and political environment;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Considers, moreover, that in order to turn the ECI into a genuine tool of participatory democracy, this initiative should also be applicable not only to ordinary legislative acts, but also to the conclusion or modification of treaties, in particular when the European Union concludes international free trade treaties on behalf of the Member States that will have a direct impact on the citizens of all Member States;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls forRecognises that although the requirements for personal data toshould be simplified in order to facilitate support for an ECI, for example by dispensing with the ID or Passport number requirement, as the current approach leads to delayscertain requirement must be maintained to prevent the risk of fraud or other procedural errors that arise in increased numbers due to the large geographic area covered by the ECI.