The European Commission has shown its utter distain for
genuine democracy in its decision to ignore the pro-life “One of Us” initiative
signed by over 1.7 million citizens from 20 member states submitted in
accordance with the requirements of the European Citizens’ Initiatives (ECI).
The ECI mechanism approved under the Lisbon Treaty is the EU response to
accusations that the entire EU project is undemocratic and out of touch with
its citizens. An ECI is in fact an invitation to the European Commission to
propose legislation on matters where the EU has competence to legislate and
must be backed by at least one million EU citizens, coming from at least 7 out
of the 28 member states.
The “One of Us” initiative exceeded the requirement of 1
million signatories obtaining 1.7 million signatures from 20 member states, the
largest ECI in the history of the European Union.
Although the European Commission is under no obligation to
follow requests made through an ECI, it makes a mockery of the entire process
and highlights the undemocratic nature of the EU institutions by rejecting a
democratically backed request that is in line with European law and imposing
its own agenda, its own political will.
The actual Commission decision can be found on this link and
a comment issued by the European Centre for law and Justice is reprinted below.
THE COMMISSION VETOS THE CITIZENS’ INITIATIVE "ONE OF
US"
A decision contrary to ethical and democratic requirements
On 28th May, the last day in office, the former “Barroso
Commission” vetoed the Citizens’ Initiative “UN DE NOUS / ONE OF US”, the
largest petition in the history of European Institutions. This initiative,
formally supported by two million people in Europe, is the largest petition in
European history. It demands that Brussels no longer finances any practice that
destroys human life before birth.
The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is a participative
democracy mechanism created by the Treaty of Lisbon through which a million
citizens can take the initiative of introducing a legislative proposal in the
European institutions.
The ONE OF US Committee expresses its deep disappointment
towards a deaf Commission which today makes a decision contrary to ethical and
democratic requirements. While each initiative draft is controlled upstream by
the Commission before being open to signature, the Barroso Commission claims to
possess the right of veto downstream, against initiatives having yet
successfully obtained the required popular support. Such veto power is
illegitimate and anti-democratic since politically, it is the European
Legislature that may give a verdict on the content of the Initiative, and not
the Commission, otherwise, the ECI mechanism would be meaningless.
An Unjustified VETO which does not even take the purpose of
the request into account: The Commission’s response is hypocritical and
disdainful as it pretends to not understand the purpose of the demand and
comprises of thirty pages of self satisfaction of its own policy. The
Commission wishes to continue financing non ethical and outdated
biotechnological practices, as well as abortion in developing countries
including countries where this is prohibited by criminal law.
An Unjustifiable VETO which flouts the democratic procedure:
The Commission, rather than noticing the Initiative’s success and transmitting
it to the European Parliament and Council of Europe has abused its power of
formal control to exercise a judgement on the political opportunity of “One of
Us” and to block this procedure. The Commission is therefore trying to defend a
privilege of initiative, being the only institution able to initiate legal
procedures up upon the creation of the ECI mechanism. The Commission therefore
made this mechanism a travesty while the deputies, on the contrary, wanted it
to be a real instrument of participative democracy. The Commission thus testifies to the absence of a democratic
culture.
For the “ONE OF US” Citizens’ Committee, the procedure is not
over: on one hand, the Commission’s decision is likely to be appealed before
the Court of Justice in Luxembourg – which acknowledges respect for human life
from conception - and on the other hand, the new Parliament will audition the
next Commission, allowing it to replace the respect of the Citizens’ Initiative
in the heart of debates, and asks European Institutions to be more ethical and
democratic.
Grégor PUPPINCK
Directeur
European Centre for Law and Justice
4, Quai Koch
67000 Strasbourg, France
Phone : + 33 (0)3 88 24 94 40 Fax : + 33 (0)3 88 24 94 47
Website
