Aktuality

The European Commission decided to register 3 new European citizens' initiatives: 'A price for carbon to fight climate change', 'Grow scientific progress: crops matter!', and 'Let's put an end to the era of plastic in Europe'.

The Commission also determined that it cannot register a proposed European citizens' initiative entitled 'EU law, minority rights and democratisation of Spanish institutions' as it does not invite the Commission to make a proposal for a legal act.

Save the bees! Protection of biodiversity and improvement of habitats for insects in Europe

The Citizens' Initiative focuses on the creation of mandatory targets 'to make the promotion of biodiversity an overall objective of the common agricultural policy; to dramatically cut the use of pesticides, ban harmful pesticides without exception and reform eligibility criteria; to promote structural diversity in agricultural landscapes; to effectively reduce nutrients (e.g. Natura 2000); to effectively establish conservation areas; to intensify research and monitoring and improve education.'

Under the Treaties, the EU can take legal action in areas such as the internal market, agricultural policy as well as the protection of public health and the quality of the environment. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it.

The organisers of this European Citizens' Initiative call on the Commission 'to propose to Member States the introduction of a tax on aviation fuel (kerosene)' claiming that 'the aviation sector enjoys tax advantages despite being one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions.'

Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can take legal action aimed at harmonisation of turnover taxes, excise duties and other forms of indirect taxation. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it.

This European Citizens' Initiative calls on the European Commission to 'impose simplified ‘Nutriscore' labelling on food products, to guarantee that consumers are provided with quality nutritional information and to protect their health'. The objectives of the initiative are to: 'make the nutritional labelling easier to read and understand […]; take action on public health issues by encouraging professionals to improve the composition of their products; [and] harmonise nutritional information at European level by imposing a single official labelling system […]'.

Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can take legal action which has as its objective the establishing and functioning of the internal market. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it.

The organisers of this European Citizens' Initiative state that 'the EU should pay special attention to regions with national, ethnic, cultural, religious or linguistic characteristics that are different from those of the surrounding regions'. Therefore, the organisers call on the Commission to provide an 'equal opportunity [for the regions] to access various EU funds (…) so that the EU's development can be sustained and its cultural diversity maintained'.

Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can make proposals for legal acts defining the tasks, priority objectives and the organisation of EU Structural Funds. The Commission clarified that statements of support for this initiative may be collected, based on the understanding that they concern legal action on the tasks, priority objectives and the organisation of EU Structural Funds and provided that the actions to be financed lead to the strengthening of the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the Union. On this basis, the Commission considers the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it.

The objective of this European Citizens' Initiative is to introduce 'a steadily increasing price on fossil fuels', which would reduce pollution and would be 'returned fairly every month to citizens as a dividend'. The organisers state that 'Scientists and economists agree: Putting an increasing price on pollution and giving the returns to households – works'.

Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can take legal action with an aim of preserving, protecting and improving the quality of the environment as well as in the area of harmonisation of indirect taxation and commercial policy. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it.

Today the European Commission decided to register 4 new European Citizens' Initiatives: 'The fast, fair and effective solution to climate change', 'Ending the aviation fuel tax exemption in Europe', 'Cohesion policy for the equality of the regions and sustainability of the regional cultures' and 'PRO-NUTRISCORE'.

At the same time, the Commission decided it cannot register a European Citizens' Initiative entitled 'Stopping trade with Israeli settlements operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory'. The initiative is legally inadmissible as it manifestly falls outside the Commission's powers to act according to the EU Treaties.

Respect for the rule of law within the European Union.

The aim of the initiative is to create ‘an objective and impartial evaluation mechanism to verify the application of the European Union's values by all the Member States'. More specifically, the organisers call on the Commission to ‘provide the European Union with general legislation […] to verify the practical application of national provisions relating to the rule of law'. In addition, the organisers aim to ‘facilitate the enforcement of European laws on judicial cooperation in criminal matters (e.g. the European Arrest Warrant)' and strengthen the role of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.

The decision to register the ‘Respect for the rule of law' initiative coincides with the launch of a reflection process by the European Commission today on possible next steps for further strengthening the rule of law in the European Union (press material here) as announced in the Commission's Work Programme for 2019. Today's consultative Communication will be followed by a more forward-looking initiative in June. Under the Treaties, the Commission can propose legal acts to evaluate the implementation by Member States of Union policies in the area of freedom, security and justice, and to strengthen the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. The European Commission therefore considered the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it.

The organisers call on the Commission to ‘establish an obligation for digital platforms to pay a guaranteed minimum income to self-employed people who regularly work for them.' The organisers argue such measures would ‘safeguard and stabilise their income and […] specifically tackle job insecurity of ‘uberised' workers'.

Under the Treaties, the EU can take legal action to make it easier for Europeans to take-up and pursue activities as self-employed persons. The Commission therefore considered the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it.

The European Commission has today decided not to register a European Citizens' Initiative entitled 'EU wide referendum whether the European Citizens want the United Kingdom to remain or to leave!'.

The Commission found that that the conditions for registration of this initiative were not met as the matter falls outside of the EU's field of competence.