An insidious path

First point: raising conscience-awareness at individual and collective levels. Second: to take action and involve at least one million citizens. Third: to follow the developments of the institutional proposal. These are the three stages of each “European citizens’ initiative” (ECI), the new institution for participatory democracy provided for the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force on April 1st 2012. With this tool Member State citizens are given the opportunity to invite the European Commission, after having collected at least one million signatures described as “statements of support”, to propose legislation on matters where the EU has competence to legislate. Some fifteen ECI have been adopted to date, ranging from environmental protection to education, from public access to water to – the renowned – One of Us, which promotes the defence of the human embryo, supported by a wide range of pro-life movements across Europe. Other ECIs were rejected before reaching the petition stage, as the themes proposed didn’t fall within EU provinces. The European Commission is tasked with examining citizens’ initiatives. It should be noted that this tool, aimed at amplifying citizens’ claims within the institutional seats in Brussels and Strasbourg, is prompting increasing involvement at “grassroots” level. From this perspective the mobilization for “One of Us” (www.oneofus.eu) can justly be considered in pole position. Organizers collect signatures in streets, outside churches after Mass service, in youth centres, within venues of meetings and symposiums held by lay associations in cities across Europe. The initiative aims at involving also non-confessional realms: life is a global patrimony. Statements of support can be filled in on paper and online, whereby the web becomes a “friend of life”, providing a great amount of documentation on the above-mentioned ECI. Having said this, it should be acknowledged that the one million signatures target is only an “intermediate step” leading to embryo protection. In fact, the initiative’s promoters refer to matters where authority to act belongs to the Community alone. The goal of One of Us is to “greatly advance the protection of human life from conception in Europe – within the possibilities of the competency of the EU”. It asks the EU “to end the financing of activities which presuppose the destruction of human embryos, in particular in the areas of research, development aid and public health that entail the violation of the right to life” (which pertains to the realm of international cooperation.) Thus EU interventions on pregnancy interruption regulated at national level fall within the specific legal province of each Member State. Second, it is necessary to follow the procedures. Collecting one million signatures – by November 1st 2013 – is not enough. It should be done via predetermined criteria as relates to the validity of the statements of support. The competent national authorities must certify the statements of support, which will then be transmitted to the Commission. Citizens backing the initiative must come from at least 7 member states, with minimum thresholds according to each country’s demographic extension. In Germany the minimum threshold is of 74.500 signatures, in France 55.500, in Italy and the United Kingdom 54.750, 38.250 in Poland, 15.000 Sweden, 13.500 Bulgaria, 4.500 Malta…When One of Us will have reached one million “certified” statements of support it will be submitted to the Commission. Commission representatives will meet the organisers so they can explain in detail the issues raised in their initiative, and present it at a public hearing in the European Parliament. In three months following the submission the Commission will adopt a formal response – which will take the form of a Communication – spelling out what action it intends to take, if any, and its reasons.If the Commission decides to put forward a legislative proposal the Commission proposal is submitted to the legislator (the European Parliament and the Council or in some cases only the Council), which will need to adopt it for it to become law. In certain cases, it may only present the preliminary opinion of the Commission, which may require further studies on the subject before making its final decision, which may not correspond to the intentions of the ECI promoters. It’s evidently a long road, but the matter at stake is life. That’s why it’s necessary to continue with determination.