Activities of Niklas NIENASS related to 2023/2017(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy (debate)
Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy (debate)
Reports (1)
REPORT on Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy
Amendments (35)
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas European democracy can generate further legitimacy through change and adaptation to current developments; whereas we urgently need to reform parliamentarism, European citizenship and participatory elements of European democracy as fundamental parts for a comprehensive reform of the democratic fundament of the Union;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas Parliament is the only EU institution directly elected by the citizens; whereas the absence of Parliament’s direct rights of initiative does not allow it to properly represent the voice of citizens, civil society and the social partners within the European institutions, effectively leaving the Commission with a monopoly on the exercise of legislative initiative;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas it is necessary to correct institutional imbalances and increase the accountability of the executive toward the legislative, in particular to grant the Parliament scrutiny powers over the European Council and the Council, as well as improve the political accountability of the Commission towards the Parliament;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas, the relationship between the Parliament and the Council often portrayed as a bicameral legislative system, has not yet been accepted nor institutionalised;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B c (new)
Recital B c (new)
Bc. whereas the persistence of unanimity voting in the Council has become a de facto impediment obstacle to the advancement of the European agenda and genuine reform of the European democracy, and a threat to the development of a real European democracy, as it allows governments of Member States to block EU decision- making in order to promote their own national agendas, often to the detriment of the European interest;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B d (new)
Recital B d (new)
Bd. whereas it is important for the European institutions to take into account the role played by the Committee of the Regions and European Economic and Social Committee in the legislative framework as representatives of local and regional authorities and organised civil society;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFE) call for more democracy and for representative democracy to be enhanced through greater citizen participation; whereas the CoFE and other existing successful projects on citizen participation have demonstrated that citizens would like to be included in EU decision-making processes on a regular basis; whereas the CoFE provided valuable experience of engaging with citizens on a large scale, from which lessons will have to be drawn;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas the European citizenship and its related rights, introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht and further enhanced by the Treaty of Lisbon, have been only partially implemented; whereas many European citizens are often not fully aware of their rights deriving from citizenship of the Union;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Cb. whereas European citizenship is currently granted together with the citizenship of a Member State, but without any control from the European Union;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C c (new)
Recital C c (new)
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C d (new)
Recital C d (new)
Cd. whereas several Member States are still offering so-called ‘golden visa programmes’ and investor schemes as means of obtaining their nationality and European citizenship consequently;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C e (new)
Recital C e (new)
Ce. whereas according to Article 10(3) TEU citizens shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union and decisions shall be taken as openly and as closely as possible to the citizens, whereas participatory democracy has been seen as a way to improve political awareness and dialogue with all citizens of the Union;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C f (new)
Recital C f (new)
Cf. whereas there is still lack of awareness of the existing participatory instruments, such as the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), petitions to the European Parliament, complaints to the European Ombudsman, public consultations and Citizens’ Dialogues;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C g (new)
Recital C g (new)
Cg. whereas participatory democracy in the EU is affected by high fragmentation and lack of follow-up, which limits the success of existing participatory instruments that do not add up to a comprehensive and efficient participatory infrastructure;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C h (new)
Recital C h (new)
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C i (new)
Recital C i (new)
Ci. whereas the referendum as a direct democracy instrument is currently not available at the EU level.
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Proposes that the Council be transformed into a true legislative chamber by reducing the number of Council configurations to one by means of a European Council decision, so as to create a genuinely bicameral legislative system based on the Council and Parliament, with the Commission acting as the executive; suggests that a the General Affairs Councils becomes the legislative Council meeting in public, similarly to the EP plenary, while all other Council configurations become transparent preparatory structures, with regular meetings to be held in public, similarly to the functioning of the committees in the Parliament;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for Parliament, the Council, and the Commission to improve cooperation modalities with the CoR and the EESC; including at the pre-legislative stage during the conduct of impact assessments, in order to ensure that their opinions and assessments can be taken into account throughout the legislative process, suggests in particular that the rapporteurs of the CoR and EESC be invited to participate in considering draft reports in the parliamentary committee and committee debriefing meetings on interinstitutional negotiations, where applicable;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Emphasises the key role of parliaments at the heart of democracy and calls for closer coordination and political dialogue between national parliaments and the European Parliament to make it more meaningful and substantial, also in frameworks such as Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs (COSAC); stresses the importance of the subsidiarity principle as laid down in Article 5 TEU; points out, in this regard, that national parliaments are best placed to mandate and scrutinise at national level the action of their respective governments in European affairs, while the Parliament should ensure the democratic accountability and legitimacy of the European executive;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Stresses the importance of the subsidiarity principle as laid down in Article 5 TEU which is binding on all Union institutions and bodies, and of the instruments contained in Protocol No 2 on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality; recalls in this context the need to improve the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality in the work of the EU institutions, in particular by cooperating with national parliaments in order for them to use the possibilities of engagement that already included in the current Treaties and to give them and local and regional authorities a more prominent role in the process in order to achieve ‘active subsidiarity’, aiming to promote greater ownership of EU policies.
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Highlights that effective citizens’ dialogues and active citizens’ participation are strongly linked to the European dimension of citizenship education, which should be enhanced; stresses therefore the need to enhance the European dimension of citizenship education in order to enable citizens’ participation in the EU decision-making process and ability to act as informed citizens and to fully participate in civic and social life at both, the European and Member State level, based on understanding of political, legal, social and economic concepts and structures; calls on the Commission to develop a comprehensive European strategy to enhance citizenship competences in the EU and develop supportive measures aimed at providing equal access to citizenship education to all people residing in the EU in order to enable them to exercise their political rights; underlines the important role that civil society, universities and other research organisations should play in such a strategy;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Strongly believes that third- country nationals who have resided legally and continuously in the European Union for a long time and have contributed to our society, may have access to citizenship of the Union; Proposes that the Council and Parliament, in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, shall be able to lay down common provisions on the acquisition and loss of citizenship of the Union by third country nationals; calls in this regard for Article 20 TFEU to be changed;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to better inform non- national Union citizens (i.e. Union citizens who reside in a Member State of which they are not nationals) about their right to vote in or run for office in municipal and European elections; stresses that such ‘mobile’ EU citizens’ right to vote and stand should be expanded to regional and national elections in Member States; calls on the Council and the Commission to introduce these rights through the procedure outlined in Article 25 TFEU, while in the long-term it should be anchored in Article 22 TFEU through Treaty change; highlights the need for awareness-raising campaigns and the involvement of civil society in them; stresses that all administrative barriers and discrimination that still exist must be removed to ensure equal possibilities for all mobile Union citizens, including for persons with disabilities;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Recalls that a single harmonised age for voting and for standing as a candidate should be introduced across the EU; is of the opinion that the minimum age for voting should be set at 16 in order to ensure equality and to avoid discrimination in access to those most fundamental civic and political rights; is of the opinion that the minimum age for voting should be set at 16; highlights further that the right to vote and to stand as candidate, and access to information and voting should also be ensured on an equal basis for all citizens, including for persons with disabilities;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Stresses the need to create a comprehensive participation infrastructure in the EU, with better connection and integration of existing participatory instruments through a one-stop shop for all European participatory instruments and new avenues for permanent participation; suggests in particular improving the architecture of the existing European participatory instruments through providing a mandatory and meaningful follow-up;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Underlines the need to address the fragmentation of the EU participation infrastructure through creating a one- stop-shop for all European participatory instruments with an institutional framework set up to administer the central hub and its relations to the citizens; believes that this measure will increase the public visibility of the participation process and instruments;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Proposes the institutionalisation of representative deliberative processes of participation based on the model of the CoFE’s European Citizens Panels; believes that the use of ‘mini-publics’ with randomly selected participants representing subsets of the socio-economic structure of the Union will help prevent unequal access to participation in EU decision-making, offering citizens that otherwise will not have this chance a way of expressing their vision;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Underlines the need to address the low literacy of EU policies and decision- making among citizens through a sustained deliberative process where the citizens engaged in citizens panels are given the necessary information to be able to engage in open debates that can result in recommendations and conclusions;
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Proposes, in particular, the creation of a permanent representative and deliberative mechanism called the European Agora, which will start in January each year by deliberating on the Commission’s annual work programme and the specific theme of the European Year; further proposes that in the first four months of the year the Agora should focus on the EU’s priorities for the year ahead with the results of the deliberations to be presented on 9 May as an input to the consultation process on the wCommission Annual Work pProgramme (CAWP), established through the Interinstitutional Agreement for Better Law Making; believes that this will ensure that the results of the European Agora will be taken into account in the decision-making process of the EU; notes that those results should also include a proposal for the specific theme for the European Year in the following annual cycle;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Calls for revision of the Interinstitutional Agreement for Better Law Making in order to integrate this permanent representative deliberative model in the annual deliberations on the CAWP;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Suggests that a Youth component of the Agora should form a European Youth Assembly, which will also monitor the application of the ‘youth check’ throughout the EU’s legislative process; proposes that the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee should establish a structure that convenes representatives of youth civil society and young local elected politicians, which should cooperate closely with the Youth Assembly to implement the youth check; underlines in this regard the need to engage with young people in particular in a political debate on the future of Europe, as today’s decisions will determine their future;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20a. Calls on the Member States to introduce e-democracy tools at local and national level, and properly integrate them in the political process, facilitating democratic participation for both citizens and residents;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Reiterates its long-standing call to amend the EU Treaties to allow for EU- wide referendums on matters relevant to the Union’s actions and policies; points out that any European referendum should be organised on the same day throughout the Union;