Progressive and full of promise or complicated and 'too European'? Our guests debate the pros and cons of the new agenda-setting Citizens' Initiative.

Forum: European Citizens' Initiative

1 April 2012 was supposed to be  an important day

to ensure democracy  in the EU decision-making process.

This is at least the message  of EU officials.

With one million signatures  from seven Member States,

more participatory democracy  is now possible.

But is it really democracy  and will citizens really have a say?

Which type of initiative will be accepted?

Is it not again a jungle of regulations  only understandable by lawyers

and what will be the real impact  of the Citizens' Initiative?

To discuss it today,  let me present my guests.

You are from the European Federation  of Public Unions

and on 1 April at midnight you launched  one of the first Citizens' Initiatives,

be taken into European legislation  as a human right.

Is this right? No mistakes at all so far?  -No, that's right.

To your left, Ulrike Lunacek.  Hello and welcome.

You say, 'Our common Europe  depends a lot

on the success of the Citizens' Initiative.'

And facing you, David Campbell  Bannerman. Hello, welcome.

You're a member of the European  Conservatives and Reformists Group.

In the past you compared the EU  to Yugoslavia

and you said the Parliament  had the feeling of a Supreme Soviet.

Maybe we'll see if this Citizens' Initiative  changes your mind

The first question to you, Pablo Sánchez.  You launched an initiative last Sunday.

And was it not a jungle of regulations  to get all this done?

Putting the information in the website  is not too complicated.

It's the rulebook  that manages the initiative

and the most complicated aspect of it  is the certification of the website.

This is where the Commission  has not been very directive.

They have given the task  to the national Member States

and some Member States were not ready  by the date they should have been.

That's the main problem.  If you go through these regulations,

which is key because online signatures  are very important...

Also because if you want to do collection  in the streets on a sheet of paper,

Well, it is too complicated  for a citizen without knowledge of IT

to go through all this jungle of legislation.

Just one more question. It looks like  quite an important machine to work.

How many people did you have  in front of you on the Commission side?

that initially was linked to  the General Secretary, to Barroso.

which was a bit of a shock when we got  in touch with them to get information.

We thought the Commission  would have put more resources into this.

Ulrike Lunacek, it's a really important  point for democracy in Europe.

Is it really democracy?  -Yes, it definitely is.

Many democracy initiatives  in the European Union

already put that forward during  the constitutional process of the EU

that started 10 years ago, but which  unfortunately did not come into practice.

It was then taken over to the Lisbon  Treaty, which then came into force,

and now finally the Member States  have implemented it.

We had the process in the EP first  with the Commission.

We improved  the Commission proposal a lot,

For example, the Commission originally  wanted 12 Member States to participate.

We in the Greens  originally wanted it down to five,

The Commission...  This was a big criticism

The Commission said  they could collect 200,000 signatures

and then the Commission would decide  whether it's eligible.

This would be crazy.  So now, as soon as it is tabled,

the Commission will decide  if it's feasible or not.

You need to have seven people  in seven Member States at least.

which is in an area  where the EU has competence.

That is very important. There was  one initiative also started on 1 April

by Friends of the Earth Europe  and other environmental NGOs

on nuclear phase-out and on investing  in energy efficiency and renewables.

They managed at 20 after midnight  on 1 April,

but they also had to find a way  to formulate it

Just the issue of shutting down nuclear  doesn't work,

because that's a national issue  for Member States.

Of course, you need to have  some organising structure.

If you just have seven friends  in seven countries...

You need some organising,  some level of organisation.

But until now there's never been  the possibility inside the European Union,

that citizens  from several Member States say:

'We want to change something  in this EU.'

'We want to change it directly, not via  our national or European parliamentarians,

so let's go ahead.'  This is a big step forward.

What is the guarantee that this thing  will change in the end?

Mr Campbell Bannerman, do you agree?  Is it really democracy starting?

I'm very much in favour of democracy, but  I don't see this working well democratically.

The key thing is, it's non-binding  on the Parliament and the Commission.

The Commission can veto it.  So you're likely to get

only those proposals that the Commission  would favour going any further.