"The European Citizens" Initiative: a Step forward or Not in Reducing the Democratic Deficit in the EU
Date Issued
2017-10-26
Author(s)
Apostolovska stepanoska, Milena
Abstract
The author of the article claims that although the European Citizens’
Initiative (ECI) is an important instrument of participatory democracy in the European Union
still there is a need of a new solutions for reducing the democratic deficit in the European
Union. In order to proof this thesis the author in the first part of the article tries to give
explanation for the democratic deficit issue in the EU. According to Hix , the current standard
version of the democratic deficit in the European Union involves five main claims and the first
one is that the European Parliament is too weak and only the European Commission has the
right for legislative initiative in the Union. The need for establishing balance in this field
brought the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) that was introduced with the Lisbon Treaty. It
means that one million EU citizens residing in at least one quarter of the Member States can
invite the Commission to submit a proposal for a legal act to implement the EU Treaties. The
second part of the paper is devoted to the European Citizens` Initiative: the genesis, evolution
and the current situation. The concept of EU citizenship, from which the European Citizens’
Initiative (ECI) was derived, was first introduced in the Maastricht Treaty. There are theorists
that negate the role that ECI has in establishing the democracy in the EU claiming that there
are obstacles in this process such as the representation of the citizens only from the bigger
Member states. That is why the author concludes that there is a need for bigger changes that
should take place at the next Intergovernmental Conference where the competencies of the EU
institutions will be discussed. One of the recommendations is giving the right for legislative
initiative for the Members of the European Parliament in order to reduce the democratic deficit
in the EU.
Initiative (ECI) is an important instrument of participatory democracy in the European Union
still there is a need of a new solutions for reducing the democratic deficit in the European
Union. In order to proof this thesis the author in the first part of the article tries to give
explanation for the democratic deficit issue in the EU. According to Hix , the current standard
version of the democratic deficit in the European Union involves five main claims and the first
one is that the European Parliament is too weak and only the European Commission has the
right for legislative initiative in the Union. The need for establishing balance in this field
brought the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) that was introduced with the Lisbon Treaty. It
means that one million EU citizens residing in at least one quarter of the Member States can
invite the Commission to submit a proposal for a legal act to implement the EU Treaties. The
second part of the paper is devoted to the European Citizens` Initiative: the genesis, evolution
and the current situation. The concept of EU citizenship, from which the European Citizens’
Initiative (ECI) was derived, was first introduced in the Maastricht Treaty. There are theorists
that negate the role that ECI has in establishing the democracy in the EU claiming that there
are obstacles in this process such as the representation of the citizens only from the bigger
Member states. That is why the author concludes that there is a need for bigger changes that
should take place at the next Intergovernmental Conference where the competencies of the EU
institutions will be discussed. One of the recommendations is giving the right for legislative
initiative for the Members of the European Parliament in order to reduce the democratic deficit
in the EU.
Subjects
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