Activities of Felix REDA related to 2014/2218(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Activities of the Committee on Petitions 2014 (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the activities of the Committee on Petitions 2014 PDF (751 KB) DOC (500 KB)
Amendments (37)
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas 2 714 petitions were received in 2014, which is almost 6 % down on the figure for 2013 when 2 885 petitions were lodged with Parliament; whereas these figures represent nearly the double amount of petitions received as compared to 2009 levels; whereas there has not been an increase of the amount of civil servants devoted to the treatment of these petitions accordingly;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas a proper treatment of petitions throughout the whole process is crucial in order to ensure a perception that the petition right is respected; whereas petitioners tend to be citizens engaged in the improvement and the future wellbeing of our societies and who in principle have faith in the EU as a useful political project to provide answer to their concerns; whereas the experience of these citizens when it comes to this treatment might determine their future opinion on the European project;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas citizens and the culture of service towards them should always be put at the centre of the work of the Parliament, and much particularly at the committee on Petitions, before any other consideration or efficiency criteria; whereas the current level of human resources available within the petitions unit puts at risk the accomplishment of these fundamental principles;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas if fully respected in its essence the right to petition strengthens Parliament’s responsiveness to EU citizens and residents, providing them with an open, democratic and transparent mechanism;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas petitions provide valuable feedback to legislators and executive bodies both at EU and national level, particularly on possible loopholes in the implementation of EU legislation;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas ensuring the fundamental right to petition is duly respected is not a single responsibility of the Committee on Petitions but should rather be a shared endeavour of all the committees of the Parliament, as well as the other EU institutions; whereas no petition should be closed while awaiting feedback from other parliamentary committees;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
Fb. whereas the Committee on Petitions should endeavour to make a greater use of its prerogatives and general or specific committee tools, such as oral questions or short resolutions, so as to give visibility to different issues of concern of European citizens or residents, on the basis of the petitions received, bringing them forward to the plenary of this Parliament;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas each petition isought to be carefully assessed individually and dealt with and each petitioner has the right to receive a reply within a reasonable period of time and the follow-up therein signalled, executed and monitored;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas in many occasions following the public debate in the committee meetings the petitions are left open and further follow-up is foreseen and feedback expected, namely additional inquiries by the Commission or parliamentary committees or concrete exchange with the concerned national or regional authorities;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H b (new)
Recital H b (new)
Hb. whereas in order to allow a broad range of topics to be discussed and to ensure the quality of each debate more meeting time is needed; whereas political groups coordinators' meetings are crucial in order to ensure a smooth planning and running of the committee, and therefore enough time should be devoted to allow for its democratic decision-making;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas the Committee on Petitions bases its activities on written information provided by petitioners and their oral and audiovisual input during meetings, supplemented by expertise from the Commission, the Member States, the Ombudsman or other bodies;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
Ia. whereas petitioners' concerns should be duly addressed in a thorough manner along the petition process; whereas this process may require different stages, including several rounds of feedback by the petitioner and the concerned European institutions and national authorities;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas the criteria established for the admissibility of petitions, pursuant to the Treaty and Parliament’s own Rules of Procedure, state that petitions shall satisfy the formal conditions governing admissibility (Rule 215 of the Rules of Procedure), namely that a petition must concern a matter which comes within the European Union’s fields of activity and directly affect the petitioner, who must be a citizen of the European Union or reside there; whereas as a result of this a proportion of petitions received are declared inadmissible because they do not comply with these official criteria (list 3); whereas the members of the Committee introduced a new procedure in December 2014 to meet these formal requirementsdecision on admissibility corresponds rather to such legal and technical criteria, and should not be determined by political decisions; whereas the Petitions web portal should be an effective tool in providing the necessary information and guidance to petitioners in regard to the admissibility;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas a petition is often filed at the same time as a complaint to the Commission which may lead to infringement proceedings being initiated or to an action for failure to act; whereas statistics show (see 23rd Report by the Commission on the application of EU law) that one quarter, even one third of petitions, are linked to infringement procedures or give rise to such procedures; whereas the involvement of the Parliament in these petition procedure grants an extra scrutiny towards the investigative work of the competent EU institutions; whereas no petitions should be closed while being under the investigation of the Commission;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas the key issues of concern dealt with in petitions relate to environmental legislation (in particular issues concerning water and waste management, and hydrocarbon prospection), fundamental rights (in particular the rights of the child and of persons withe disabledilities), free movement of persons, various forms of discrimination (on ethnic, cultural or language-based grounds in particular), visas, immigration, employment, the application of justice, social inclusion for persons with disabilities and many other areas of activity;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas the web portal of the Committee on Petitions was launched with a year of delay on 19 November 2014 to replace the Europarl site’s previous electronic platform for filing petitions, and was conceived in order to promote the right to petition and enhance citizens' active participation in the life of the EU; whereas this portal has been designed asaims at being an integrated solution covering the specific needs of the petition process and which gives EU citizens wishing to file a petition an Internet tool better suited to their needs, including the possibility of a real-time follow-up of the status of their petitions; whereas the portal willis supposed to help improve the service and its visibility for citizens and committee members, and will act as an electronic register (planned in Rule 216(4) of the Rules of Procedure) through which citizens may lend or withdraw their support for existing petitions and affix their electronic signature to their own petitions; whereas the new portal hwas been designintended to make the petition procedure more transparent and interactive, ands well as its administrative aspects more efficient, in the interest of petitioners, Members and the general public; whereas there can be no question but that its launch in November 2014 has helped to promote EU citizenshipsince the launch of its pilot phase in November 2014 several evident shortcomings have been identified, some of them of such a gravity as to render the portal effectively useless in regard to its mission as a transparent public register of petitions; whereas according to the latest adopted planning, the second phase resolving all the existing loopholes should have already been concluded ;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P
Recital P
P. whereas the Committee on Petitions continues to maintain an active interest in the implementation of the Regulation on the European Citizens’ Initiative, and is mindful of the many weaknesses and rather cumbersome nature of the existing legal framework and required mechanisms to launch and follow-up on an ECI, particularly in terms of the actual collection of signatures;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R
Recital R
R. whereas the public hearings organised for successful initiatives have been a success, and the involvement and participation of the Committee on Petitions as the committee associated in ECI hearings has been greatly appreciated by the members and by civil society; whereas the Committee on Petitions supports this process and places its long experience of working with citizens at the service of this objective; whereas a concrete follow-up, with concrete proposals, would be expected from the Commission for any successful ECIs;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S
Recital S
S. whereas it should be noted that owing to the workload of the Committee on Petition, no fact-finding visits took place for petitions for which an inquiry was ongoing during 2014, butand only one fact-finding visits haves been scheduled for 2015;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S a (new)
Recital S a (new)
Sa. whereas the normal amount of fact- finding visits should be resumed in 2016, since they are specific prerogative of the committee and a fundamental part of its work, when it comes to interacting with citizens and also authorities in the concerned Member States; whereas members of these delegations take part in all its related activities, including reporting, on an equal footing;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital T
Recital T
T. whereas the Committee on Petitions has responsibilities in relation to the Office of the European Ombudsman, which is responsible for investigating complaints from EU citizens about possible maladministration within the EU institutions and bodies, and about which the Committee also produces an Annual Report based upon the European Ombudsman’s own Annual Report; whereas in 2014, the Committee played an active and direct role in the organisation of the election of the European Ombudsman under Rule 204 of the Rules of Procedure; whereas the re-election of Ms Emily O’Reilly in December 2014 for a five-year term of office passed off in an efficient and transparent manner; whereas the levels of transparency concerning the disclosure of the signatures of members supporting the nomination of candidates should be brought back to the higher standards of the past;
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses the fundamental role to be played by the Committee on Petitions in defending and promoting the rights of EU citizens and residents, ensuring that the concerns of petitioners are better recognised and their legitimate grievances are resolved wherever possible and within a reasonable timeframe;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses that the Committee on Petitions, as the contact point for citizens, the European Ombudsman and the European Citizens’ Initiative together constitute a set of basic tools for democracy in the European Union and that appropriate access to and service for them has to be ensured along with their smooth running; underlines the responsibility that these have in promoting European citizenship and strengthening the visibility and credibility of the EU institutions;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Warns about the persisting backlog in the treatment of petitions, due to the constraint in the human resources available within the committee's secretariat, which has a clear impact on the time span in the treatment of petitions, particularly in what regards the determination of their admissibility; consider that such delays are not acceptable if aiming to a service excellence, and that they not only undermine the effective right to petition, but also harms the credibility of the European institutions at the eyes of the concerned citizens; exhorts the responsible political and administrative instances of the Parliament, in cooperation with the committee on Budget, to find an appropriate solution to ensure that the work of the committee on Petitions can live up to the spirit of the treaties;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses the Commission’s significant role in assisting with cases raised by petitioners, and calls on it to monitor proactively and timely certain projects reported by petitioners in which there is well-founded evidence that EU law mayhas been breached or will be in the future according to official planning; calls on the Commission, as guardian of the Treaties, to remedy those cases of incorrect transposition of EU law reported in a large number of petitions filed with Parliament; calls on the Commission to regularly keep the Committee on Petitions informed of developments and the concrete outcome in infringement proceedings directly linked to any one petition;
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls on the Commission to fully engage in the process of petitions, namely conducting thorough inquiries on the admissible cases derived to its instances, and ultimately to provide accurate and updated answers to the petitioners in written; expect these replies to be further developed in the oral debates on these issues in the public Petitions committee meetings; considers that for the purpose of institutional credibility the Commission ought to be represented in such debates by an official with appropriate rank;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Requests that, for the sake of transparency and in the spirit of faithful cooperation between the different EU institutions, the European Commission facilitates access to documents with all the relevant information related to EU Pilot procedures, particularly in cases relating to existing petitions, including the exchanges of questions and answers between the Commission and the concerned Member State, at least when the procedure is concluded;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Call for a timely feedback from the Commission in the shortest possible time frame, ideally within a period no longer than three months since the request is duly received; expects furthermore to receive a proper reply, following an in- depth inquiry; regrets that the answer of the Commission is often excessively bureaucratic and superficial, and disagrees in this sense with an approach exclusively based on formal or procedural grounds; considers that as guardian of the treaties the Commission should also enter into the substance and the ultimate spirit of the relevant EU legislation involved; feels entitled to refer further aspects back to the Commission in regard of certain petitions in case it fails to meet these minimum standards in its response, taking also into account possible further feedback and evidences of inaccuracy provided by the concerned petitioners in this regard;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4d. Stresses the importance of proactive monitoring and timely preventive action by the Commission where there is well- founded evidence that certain planned and published projects may breach EU legislation; is worried by the current trend within the Commission to inhibit inquiries into the substance of many petitions, using exclusively on procedural grounds; disagrees with the recurrent suggestions to close many files relating to petitions without a proper outcome from the examinations, and believes that this is not in line with the spirit of the Commission's ultimate role as guardian of the Treaties; calls for even more scrupulous attention and consequent action, in particular in those cases presented by petitioners which involve possible breaches of EU legislation by the Commission itself, for instance in the field of public access to documents, as guaranteed by the Aarhus Convention;
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Considers it essential that cooperation with the other committees be strengthened by asking their opinion on petitions, inviting their members to attend debates in their areas of responsibility, participating more in their work as committee for the opinion on certain reports and for reports on the proper transposition and implementation of EU law in the Member States; requests the competent committees to take the petitions forwarded to them in due consideration and to provide the appropriate feedback for the necessary treatment of petitions;
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls for the prompt establishment an informal Petitions Network within the Parliament, with the participation of members representing every committee of the Parliament, in order to ensure a smooth and effective coordination on the work related to petitions, which will improve the exercise of the right to petitions;
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Notes the concerns of petitioners regarding alleged cases of injustice that have occurred during the administrative and judicial procedures for separation or divorce of parents and issues relating to the custody of young children and forced adoptions within some Member States; notes in this context that in the case of bi- national couples, discrimination on grounds of nationality may occur in favour of the spouse from the Member State in which proceedings take place and against the non- national of that state, with severe and often very dramatic repercussions on the rights of the child; notes that the Committee on Petitions will conduct a fact- finding visit to the United Kingdom in 2015 to investigate complaints of this nature in situ; stresses that it has been notified of other cases involving other countries: Germany (notably in cases concerning the work of the Child and Youth Welfare Office), France and the Netherlands;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Stresses the wide range of the subjects raised in the petitions filed by citizens, such as fundamental rights, the internal market, environmental law, public health issues, child welfare, transport, persons withe disabledilities and animal rights; requests that in order to be able to deal with all this intensive and extensive range of petitions more resources be allocated to its Secretariat;
Amendment 147 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Believes that the organisation of public hearings is a very important way of examining problems raised by petitioners; wishes to draw attention to the public hearings organised with the Committee on the Environment in regard to the European Citizens’ Initiative on ‘Water is a Human Right’ and with the Committee on Legal Affairs for the ECI entitled ‘One of Us’; believes that the ECI is the first instrument of transnational participatory democracy that will enable citizens to become actively involved in the framing of EU policies and legislation; reaffirms its commitment to being involved in organising public hearings for successful initiatives; undertakes to give priority, at institutional level, to the effectiveness of this participative process and ensuring due legislative follow-up where appropriate;
Amendment 154 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Points to the importance of the Committee on Petitions of having launched itsa fully operational Internet portal through which petitioners may effectively register, submit their petition, upload supporting documents, support admissible petitions, receive information about their petition and also automatic e-mail alerts about changes to the status of their petition; regrets that the expected implementation timeframe has not been accomplished and that many of the expected features remain incomplete; urges the responsible administrative bodies to speed-up the necessary steps to conclude the implementation of the remaining phases of the project, correcting any existing shortcoming;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Recalls that fact-finding visits are one of the most important investigation tools the Committee on Petitions has, as foreseen in the rules, even though there were exceptionally none during 2014; calls on Greece to take note of the recommendations made in the report on the fact-finding visit on waste collection and the siting of landfills in Greece, which was adopted in committee in February 2014; calls on the Commission to monitor carefully the use made of funds allocated to waste collection; calls on Member States to comply with the EU directives on recycling waste; expects the regular activity of the Petitions committee in terms of fact- finding visits to be resumed as of 2016;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Looks forward to enhance the cooperation with petitions committee in national and regional parliaments of the different Members States where these exist; commits to provide guidance in setting up such committees in the remaining Member States willing to do so;