22 Amendments of Andris AMERIKS related to 2022/2024(INI)
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A (new)
Recital -A (new)
-A. whereas the purpose of the annual report on the outcome of the Committee on Petitions' deliberation is to present an analysis of the petitions received in 2021 and of relations with other institutions, and to present an accurate picture of the objectives achieved in 2021;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas, however, the overall number of petitions remains modest in relation to the total population of the EU, revealing that efforts still need to be stepped up to increase citizens’ awareness about their right to petition, or of its possible usefulness as a means of drawing the attention of the EU institutions and the Member States to matters that affect and concern them directly; whereas, in exercising the right to petition, citizens expect that the EU institutions will provide added value in finding a solution to their problems;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas, of the 1 392 petitions submitted in 2021, 368 were declared inadmissible and 17 were withdrawn; whereas the relatively high percentage (26.5 %) of inadmissible petitions in 2021 demonstrates that there is still a widespread lack of clarity about the scope of the Union’s areas of responsibility; whereas to remedy this situation, communication with citizens needs to be encouraged and improved;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
G a. whereas each petition is considered and examined carefully, efficiently and transparently;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G b (new)
Recital G b (new)
G b. whereas petitioners tend to be citizens engaged in safeguarding fundamental rights and in the improvement and future wellbeing of our societies; whereas the experience of those citizens in regard to the processing of their petitions is very influential in determine their perception of the EU institutions and respect for the right to petition contained in EU law;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas the right to petition the European Parliament is one of the fundamental rights of EU citizens; whereas the right to petition provides EU citizens and residents with an open, democratic and transparent mechanism to address their elected representatives directly and is therefore essential to enable citizens to participate actively and effectively in the life of the Union; whereas, through petitions, EU citizens can complain about failures to implement EU law and help detect breaches of EU law;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas the European Parliament is the only EU institution directly elected by EU citizens; whereas the right to petition offers Parliament the opportunity to enhance its responsiveness to complaints and concerns relating to the respect for EU fundamental rights and compliance with EU legislation in the Member States; whereas petitions are therefore a useful source of information on instances of misapplication or breaches of EU law and, thus, enable Parliament and other EU institutions to assess the transposition and application of EU law and its impact on the rights of EU citizens and residents;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
J a. whereas the Committee on Petitions is best able to show citizens what the European Union does for them and what solutions it can provide at European, national or local level;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J b (new)
Recital J b (new)
J b. whereas the partisan use of the Committee on Petitions can lead to its inappropriate use and, therefore, to the deterioration of citizens' trust in this body and in the rest of the European institutions; whereas the discussions of the Committee on Petitions are sometimes used to address national or regional issues outside the scope of competence attributed by the Treaties and that the study of petitions is exclusively conditioned by criteria of majorities, ignoring the minorities and thus preventing serious debates or complaints;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas the main subjects of concern raised in petitions submitted in 2021 related to fundamental rights (in particular the impact of COVID-19 emergency measures on the rule of law and democracy, as well on the freedom of movement and the right to work, as well as a large number of petitions related to LGBTQ+ rights in the Union), health (notably questions on the public health crisis resulting from the persistence of the pandemic, ranging from the protection of citizens’ health, including vaccination policy, to the use, implementation and application of the EU Digital COVID Certificate in the Member States and the alleged discrimination between vaccinated and non-vaccinated persons), the environment (mostly concerning mining activities and their impact on the environment, nuclear safety, air pollution and the deterioration of natural ecosystems), minority rights and discrimination (including the rights of national or linguistic minorities), education (in particular questions related to discriminatory access to education or contested national reforms of the law on education), the situation of EU students in the UK after the UK’s withdrawal from Erasmus+, and employment (in particular questions relating to national treatment of work contracts), in addition to many other areas of activity;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R a (new)
Recital R a (new)
R a. whereas the European Commission has an essential role in the Committee on Petitions as guardian of the Treaties and the information provided by the petitioners is useful to discover possible breaches or misapplications of the European law;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point a (new)
(a) Recalls that, in 2021, there were considerable differences in number of petitions submitted to the Committee on Petitions from the 27 EU Member States, with most of the petitions concerning Spain (17%),followed by Germany (9,7%), Italy (9,2%), Greece (5,9%), Romania (4,1%), Poland(4,0%) and France (2,6%); the number of petitions concerning the remaining Member States was less than 2% per Member State;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Is of the opinion that the Committee on Petitions is equally available to citizens and residents in all 27 Member States and that the treatment of petitions should be geographically balanced and proportionate to the size of each Member State; believes in this respect that the European Parliament should increase the efforts to promote the role and work of its Committee on Petitions and raise all EU citizens’ awareness of the possibility to address a petition to the European Parliament;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Warns of the risk of potential reputational damage to the Committee on Petitions and the European Parliament as a whole if the treatment of petitions were politicised or used for domestic party- political objectives; recalls in this context the very European dimension of the Committee on Petitions whose role it is, in accordance with Article 227 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, to treat petitions on matters which come within the European Union's fields of activity;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Recalls the agreements between the political groups represented in the Committee on Petitions are essential to provide a balanced and understandable response to the petitioners; regrets the lack of agreement experienced in the last year; expresses concern about the problems caused by partisan use of the Committee on Petitions;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Reiterates the importance of a continuous public debate on the Union’s field of activity in order to ensure that citizens are correctly informed about the scope of the Union’s competences and the different levels of decision-making; calls, in this regard, for broader awareness raising campaigns, through the active involvement of communications services, to help increase citizens’ knowledge about their right to petition, as well as the scope of the Union’s responsibilities and the competences of the Committee on Petitions, with a view to reducing the number of inadmissible petitions and better responding to citizens’ concerns;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Recalls that petitions contribute considerably to the Commission’s role as guardian of the Treaties; stresses that reinforced cooperation between the Committee on Petitions and the Commission through timely and detailed answers from the Commission, which are based on thorough examination of the issues raised in petitions, are essential to ensure the successful treatment of petitions: reiterates its cCalls on the Commission forto regularly update the Committee on Petitions on developments in infringement proceedings and forto ensure that the Committee on Petitions gets access to relevant Commission documents on infringements and EU Pilot procedures which have been closed;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Reminds that the e-Peti database is an important internal tool that allows the Members of the Committee on Petitions to access all necessary information in order to follow up on the state of play of each individual petition and to being able to make informed decisions when it comes to the petitions’ ongoing treatment or possible closure; to this end, thee-Peti database should be regularly updated and, if possible, linked to the European Commissions’ list of infringements;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Finds it worrying that the European Commission does not provide updated information on petitions under infringement procedures and on their state of play; deplores in this regard the lack of systematic follow-up in the communication with the Committee on Petitions; therefore, calls on the Commission to provide the Committee on Petitions with regular and updated information on infringement procedures which were launched based on the petitions received;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Encourages the European Parliament and the European Commission to develop a joint one-stop- shop IT tool which would include all the available information on the Commission’s follow-up actions taken on petitions, including the infringement procedures and other legislative or non- legislative actions;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16 a. Considers that a binding inter- institutional agreement between the European Parliament and the European Commission on treatment of petitions would be the best way forward in order to ensure a transparent and efficient process and thus to strengthen the citizens’ rights to address a petition to the European Parliament on a matter which comes within the Union's fields of activity, as enshrined in the Article 227 of the EU Treaty;