Saturday 22 December 2012

A Raging Success?


I've touched on the subject before of the European Citizen's Initiative, designed as part of the Lisbon Treaty to introduce direct democracy into the European Union (don't laugh).

It was launched officially on, appropriately enough, Europe Day (9th May 2012) with this first petition. So on a continent of around 500 million people, ruled by the EU, how much have they enthusiastically embraced this supposed dose of democracy by the EU?

Er...by the grand total of 14 current and open petitions, thus averaging a pitiful 2 a month. Still at least the EU is leading the way on democracy.

4 comments:

  1. To have a Citizen's initiative you need at least 7 EU citizens from at least 7 EU countries. I wonder what percentage of EU citizens know at least 1 person from 6 other EU countries who will support them on their point of view and then be able to campaign for at least 1 million votes?! The EU has invested all but nothing in the UK media to promote the idea!

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  2. Yes it's not exactly a hit is it? there are thousands and thousands of petitions on the internet - some get millions of signatures - but the requirement of finding signatories from seven different countries is a strong deterrent. I probably do know some people in seven other EU countries but getting them to sign a petition would be another matter!

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  3. And they'll claim no one wants democracy.

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  4. @Julia Gasper Yes, and the 'strong deterrent' is clearly deliberate.

    @James Higham That'll be one excuse I'm sure...

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