Activities of Julia PITERA related to 2016/2146(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
Activities of the Committee on Petitions 2015 (debate) PL
Activities of the Committee on Petitions 2015 (debate) PL
Amendments (21)
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas the Committee on Petitions has made greater use of the specific committee tools at its disposal, such as oral questions and short resolutions, so as to give visibility to the different issues of concern to citizens, or the sending of questions and resolutions to the plenary of Parliament, such as the resolutions on mortgage legislation and risky financial instruments in Spain or the best interests of children in Europe;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas during 2015 petitions lodged by citizens were processed faster and with greater efficiency, the timespan involved in correspondence with petitioners having been reduced as procedures for dealing with petitions had been simplified;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P
Recital P
P. whereas a specific way of handling petitions relating to the welfare of children has been adopted and a special working group created on the issue, and whereas the group was constituted on 17 September 2015, having elected Eleonora Evi as its chair with representatives from all the political groups;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R
Recital R
R. whereas these petitions resulted in complaints on environmental issues; whereas the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Finland regarding the transposition of the Directive on public access to environmental information; whereas in a further five, and in a few cases regarding the environment the Commission initiated bilateral talks with the Member States concerned; whereas the cases were related to shale gas, management of wolves, the incorrect application of the Directive on strategic environmental assessment and , among other things, compliance of national legislation with the requirements of the Directive on public access to environmental information, shale gas, management of wolves and the incorrect application of the Directive on strategic environmental assessment;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S
Recital S
S. whereas petitions filed by citizens also deal with justice issues, in one instance motivating the Commission to initiate a bilateral dialogue with a Member State on its restrictions regarding change of name after marriagewhich, after environmental protection, was the second biggest issue in terms of the number of petitions (172 petitions, 7.5% of all petitions);
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital V
Recital V
V. whereas the involvement of Parliament in these procedures implies additional scrutiny of the investigative work of the competent EU institutions; whereas no petition ishould be closed while it is being investigated by the Commission;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital X
Recital X
X. whereas the key issues of concern raised in petitions pertain to a wide range of issues, such as environmental legislation (in particular, waste water treatment, waste management, gas and hydrocarbon prospection and extractionthe application of justice (in particular, custody rights regarding minors), fundamental rights (in particular, the rights of the child and of persons with disabilities), the free movement of persons, discrimination, immigration, employment, animal welfare, the application of justice (in particular custody rights regarding minors) and breaches of consumer rightsbreaches of consumer rights, animal welfare and environmental protection (in particular, waste water treatment, waste management, gas and hydrocarbon prospection and extraction);
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses that petitions are very important for the legislative process, as they detect deficiencies in the transposition of Community legislation and provide other Parliament committees with useful and direct input for their legislative work in their respective fields; applauds the setting up of an informal petitions network within Parliament, with the participation of Members representing every committee of Parliament, in order to ensure smooth and effective coordination of petitions work; considers that petitions are not solely the responsibility of the Committee on Petitions, but should be a shared endeavour of all of the European Parliament’s committees; urges all parliamentary committees concerned to pay due attention to the petitions forwarded to them and to provide the information necessary for petitions to be processed properly;
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Reiterates the call of the report on the activities of the Committee on Petitions 2013 (2014/2008 (INI)) for an enhanced structured dialogue to be launched with Member States, for example, by holding regular meetings with members from national Petitions Committees or other competent authorities; is pleased that a delegation from the Committee on Petitions of the German Bundestag was present at the Committee meeting held on 4 May 2015calls on the Member States to take note of the recommendations made in the reports of fact-finding missions and during dialogues;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes the restrictive and narrow interpretation of the European Commission in relation to Article 51(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights which states, inter alia, that the Charter is addressed to the Member States ‘only when they are implementing Union law’; notes that Article 51(2) of the Charter states that the Charter ‘does not extend the field of application of Union law beyond the powers of the Union’; notes, however, that this does not mean that citizens are unprotected if they believe that their fundamental rights have been violated in cases where EU law is not applied, as in such cases it is up to the Member States to ensure the protection of fundamental rights in accordance with their national legislation and international obligations;
Amendment 150 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. PStresses that in January 2015, two Members were appointed as representative members of the Committee on Petitions in the structures of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and that they took part in the analysis of the preliminary report of the European Union and the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Geneva, Switzerland, on 27-28 August 2015; points to the important ongoing work carried out by the Committee on Petitions in the context of the application of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; duly notes that 2015 was a very significant year in that for the first time a United Nations agency reviewed the fulfilment of human rights obligations in the EU; is pleased to note that a United Nations committee had the opportunity to hear all the details regarding the protection provided by the Committee on Petitions; underscores that the Commission has begun to incorporate the concluding observations by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into the petition treatment process1; is pleased to note that the public hearing ‘Protecting the rights of people with disabilities, from the perspective of petitions received’ organised by the Committee on Petitions on 15 October 2015, was highly accessible; draws attention to the importance of the findings of the study commissioned by Policy Department C entitled ‘The protection role of the Committee on Petitions in the context of the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’; considers it important that the Committee on Petitions continues to organise events focusing on petitions in the field of disability; calls for the capacity of the Committee on Petitions and its Secretariat to be enhanced to enable it to properly fulfil its protection role; calls for the establishment of a designated officer responsible for the processing of disabilities-related issues; notes the Committee’s significant follow-up action in 2015 with regard to disability with respect to more specific topics such as the ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty (petition No 0924/2011), the unlocking of the anti-discrimination Directive (petition No 0360/2009), exemption from customs duties for certain products designed to promote the cultural, educational or scientific advancement of persons with disabilities (petition No 0240/2015) or family caregivers (petition No 0098/2015); __________________ 1 Adopted by the UN Committee at its 14nth session (17 August to 4 September 2015); see: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatyb odyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=C RPD%2fC%2fEU%2fCO%2f1&Lang=en
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Believes that the organisation of public hearings is an important way of examining problems raised by petitioners; draws attention to the public hearings on the European Citizens’ Initiative organised on 26 February 2015 with the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety in response to the ECI on ‘Water is a Human Right’, and with the Committee on Legal Affairs for the ECI entitled ‘One of Us’Constitutional Affairs, the hearing on the right to submit petitions organised on 23 June 2015, and the hearing on protecting the rights of persons with disabilities organised on 15 October 2015;
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Considers that the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is a new political right for citizens as well as a relevant agenda-setting tool for participatory democracy in the European Union, allowing citizens to play an active part in projects and processes that affect them, and the potential of which must unquestionably be exploited to the full and significantly enhanced in order to achieve the best results and to encourage as many EU citizens as possible to participate in the further development of the European integration process; likewise considers that it must be one of the EU’s priority objectives to strengthen the democratic legitimacy of its institutions; reminds the European Commission of the need to follow up on all the recommendations made in the European Parliament resolution of 28 October 2015 on the European Citizens’ Initiative (2014/2257(INI) to ensure thereby that the right to present a European Citizens’ Initiative is properly implemented; reaffirms its commitment to being proactively involved in organising public hearings for successful initiatives; undertakes to give priority, at institutional level, to the effectiveness of this participative process and to ensuring due legislative follow-up;
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. DeplorWelcomes the fact that the Commission considers that it is too early to revise Regulation (EU) No 211/2011 of 1 April 2012 which entered into force three years agohas committed to carrying out a review of how the Citizens’ Initiative works after accumulating experience during its several years of operation, thus enabling it to make a reliable assessment of regulation (EU) No 211/2011; considers that it is necessary to thoroughly evaluate its implementation to identify possible deficiencies and propose workable solutions with a view to revising it soon; welcomes the Commission’s report of 31 March 2015 on the ECI, and the European Ombudsman’s Decision OI/9/2013/TN, and calls on the Commission to ensure, in its revision of this instrument, that all the appropriate legal measures are taken with a view to providing proper follow-up when an ECI is deemed to have been completed successfully; calls on the Commission, in view of the various weaknesses identified, to present a proposal for reform of Regulation (EU) No 211/2011 as soon as possible;
Amendment 188 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Draws attention to its resolution (2015/2740(RSP) of 8 October 2015 on mortgage legislation and risky financial instruments in Spain in the light of the petitions received, concerning which Parliament issued a series of recommendations for the proper application of EU mortgage legislation; calls on the Commission to supervise closely the implementation in all Member States of Directive 2014/17/EU on credit agreements and to share best practices in order to improve protection for citizens in financial difficulties;
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
Amendment 204 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23