At Last, One's Got Through

For those who watch the BBC's Have I Got News For You programme will be familiar with the "Missing Words Round", where newspaper headlines are displayed with certain words blanked out. Contestants have to guess the missing word.

So in that spirit let’s have a game of TBF’s “Missing Words Round”. From the paragraphs that follow try to guess the missing words in the BBC website headline above…and no cheating.

The BBC reports that:

“a grassroots initiative” [sic] to protect the quality of Europe's drinking water and stop it being privatised has got on to the agenda of EU lawmakers in Brussels”. It is the first European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) to reach that stage, the European Commission says.

Ah our old friend the European Citizens' Initiative which was an 'innovation' of the Lisbon Treaty, and is laughably aimed at increasing democracy in the EU. So in the spirit of democracy I’ll produce a quick guide here on how to follow the procedure to “encourage” the EU Commission to legislate on matters that concerns EU citizens (my emphasis throughout):

• First you need find out if the initiative or idea is an EU Commission competence and that the proposed initiative is not manifestly contrary to the EU values as set out in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union. If not it immediately fails.
  
  
• Then a citizens' initiative has to be proposed by a citizens' committee composed of at least 7 EU citizens old enough to vote in European Parliament elections and living in at least 7 different member states. The committee must designate from among its members a representative and a substitute to speak and act on their behalf. These will be the contact persons who will liaise between the committee and the Commission throughout the procedure.
  
  
• Then before organisers can start collecting statements of support from citizens, they have to request the registration of their proposed initiative on this website. This includes providing personal details of the 7 required committee members (full names, postal addresses, nationalities and dates of birth), indicating specifically the representative and his/her substitute as well as their e-mail addresses and telephone numbers. And documents that prove the full names, postal addresses, nationalities and dates of birth of each of the 7 members of the citizens’ committee.

I hope you’re keeping up at the back…(and I have simplified this procedure somewhat).

• At the time of registration and throughout the procedure, organisers must provide up-to-date information on all sources of support and funding worth more than €500 per year and per sponsor.
  
  
• Organisers who wish to collect statements of support online must build an online collection system, accessible through their website, to ensure that data complies with EU data protection legislation.

Phew! Now we got that far, we can get going and collect some signatures:

• As soon as the registration of the proposed initiative has been confirmed, organisers can start collecting statements of support from citizens. They have 12 months to collect the required number of statements of support (1 million overall including a minimum number in at least 7 member states – see Minimum number of signatories per member state).
  
  
• Don't forget in order to collect statements of support, organisers have to use specific forms which comply with the models for the statement of support form set out in Annex III of the Regulation on the citizens' initiative, and which include all required information regarding the proposed initiative.

One the signature process is over, we then need a certification to prove the number of valid statements:

• Once organisers have collected the necessary statements of support, they must ask the competent national authorities in each member state where they have collected statements of support to certify the number of valid statements of support collected for that country. 

This must happen within 3 months. If we complete these hurdles (and there a number of others as well) we can submit the initiative. In a further 3 months following the submission of the initiative:

• Commission representatives will meet the organisers so they can explain in detail the issues raised in their initiative.
  
  
• the organisers will have the opportunity to present their initiative at a public hearing in the European Parliament.
  
  
• the Commission will adopt a formal response spelling out what action it will propose in response to the citizens' initiative, if any, and the reasons for doing or not doing so.

The Commission is not obliged to propose legislation as a result of an initiative, and the first ever petition to fulfil all the previous criteria didn't count. No wonder that when looking the website we can see clearly that in a population of 500 million, there aren't many petitions. The only ones that exist are as follows:

• 7 open
• 7 closed (failed)
• 6 withdrawn
• 5 failed due to lack of support
• and just 1 that has successfully been submitted to the Commission

After all that, did anyone guess the missing words? To delay not a moment longer, the answer is:

And just in case there is any doubt where the BBC's sentiments lie, further down the article states this:

European Citizens' Initiative: Direct democracy tool launched in April 2012

How the BBC has come to this conclusion is a wonderment to behold. Particularly as Switzerland, via (proper) Direct Democracy, recently backed a proposal to bring back strict quotas for immigration from EU countries. And now they are paying the price of the EU’s disappointment.

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.

Have Your Say And Make A Difference

Credit where credit's due, sometimes one has to acknowledge that occasionally the EU gets things completely right, and today against all the odds, contrary to all my expectations and constant criticisms, the EU has begun the much desired process of democratic reform, to the extent where it now leads the way on democracy.

As per the requirements of the Lisbon Treaty today is when the European Citizens’ Initiative comes into effect:

In accordance with the Regulation, it will only be possible to launch the first European Citizens' Initiatives from 1 April 2012.

Which allows:

....one million EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies, by calling on the European Commission to make a legislative proposal.

Don't delay, you can find all the facts here, learn how to sign up here and follow the procedure here. We can all make a difference, all we need is enthusiasm. Please partake, together we can help make the EU a safer, happier and more prosperous place to live for everyone.

Update: and you know what? UKK41 agrees with me

Democracy, EU Style

I've blogged about the European Citizen's Initiative before, Bloggers4UKIP has a good piece here on how it works (or doesn't) in practice:

So what do I do? I need to save up enough money to finance a multinational petition covering at least three EU countries with at least 300,000 (yes, three-hundred-thousand) signatures.

And that's not even half way there. The European Commission then decides whether the interests of those 300,000 people from a minimum of three EU countries is worth their time or own interests shutting it down immediately, or giving it the thumbs up for phase two. Phase two can't be that big a deal can it? After all we've convinced 300,000 people from more than 3 EU countries to sign a petition and then we've convinced the EU Commission that all 300,000 people's interests are worthy of their attention. So what more?

After the thumbs up, we need a total of 700,000 more signatures from a minimum of a total of nine EU countries. Oh and that's not the only thing. You know those signatures I've been banging on about? I slipped up. I need to go back to those 1 million people and convince them to also give me their national identification number, in the form of their social security numbers or passport numbers.

Not only that, due to data protection laws I have to also invest in security measures to protect the information of over 1 million people with a minimum of 7 million pieces of information. The costs of all of this would be a minimum of half a million pounds. That's assuming I get the bare minimum of requirements fulfilled.

And even after following all that successfully, it's still not enough. The EU then turns round and says it still doesn't count:

The entry into force of the EU's new citizens' initiative (ECI) - a petition procedure under the Lisbon Treaty allowing European citizens to demand action in a particular area - is likely to be welcomed by a legal battle between Greenpeace and the EU institutions.

A legal battle? Why? After all...

The environmental NGO has successfully collected the required 1 million signatories in a petition calling on the EU to ban GMOs...

Job done surely?

...but officials from both the European Commission and the European Parliament say the move is premature.

Oh FFS!

"We've always said that we take their opinion very seriously but it's not an ECI as the legislation is not yet in place," [said] Michael Mann, the commission's administration spokesman.

So what about those one million signatures already collected?

"Strictly speaking, they would have to do it all over again," he added.

It's almost like they're making the process as difficult as possible. Surely that's unthinkable? Still, at least more taxpayers money will get wasted spent in the meantime:

A European Parliament official concurred. "We may end up going to court on this," the contact said.

Labour MEP Loses Marbles

From Mary Honeyball MEP:

The EU leads the Way on Democracy

In case you misread that (and I don't blame you if you did) I'll quote it again:

The EU leads the Way on Democracy

She ends her post:

The Citizens’ Initiative* is a way forward allowing people not only a say but a concrete means of bringing about change. It’s good for all of us and a real example to our national parliamentarians.

I'm genuinely lost for words.

*I've blogged about the Citizen's Initiative a few times, needless to say that democratic is the last that it is.

See No Citizens, Hear No Citizens, Speak To No Citizens

I hope you'll forgive me but I'm feeling a little...erm... angry this morning since another betrayal of our country by the Tories to our Brussels masters. So blogging maybe a bit light for a while.

I did, however, find this post by the very good EU blogger Jon Worth to cheer me up a little. Jon Worth is a passionate European - in the federal sense - a quick look at his profile and you'll get the general idea.

He writes about the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), an initiative laughably designed to improve democracy within the EU, something that I blogged about here when MEPs complained that the device designed to improve democracy could be used to achieve that very outcome.

Entitled "See no citizens, hear no citizens, speak to no citizens – the institutional approach to the European citizens’ initiative (ECI)", his post - from a hardened federalist - is an absolute gem:

Surely the European Parliament should know a thing or two about democracy? Seems not…

Really? Why the surprise? There's nothing democratic about the EU Parliament as there wasn't about the 'democratically elected' Supreme Soviet. He continues...

So there we have it. Members of the European Parliament, when preparing a working document about the citizens’ initiative, ask whether it should be necessary for elected representatives to support it, whether financial means need to be demonstrated, and then propose to slow down and bureaucratise the process by getting a bunch of “wise men” to advise on the admissibility of an initiative.

It maybe hampered by bureaucracy? Blimey who woulda thunk it? Bureaucracy is the EU's middle name. And...

As if that were not enough they propose no change to the 1 year limit to collect signatures (have either them ever tried to collect 1 million signatures?) and seem to confuse themselves about whether individuals or organisations (legal persons) should be doing the collecting.

Of course they've thought about the logistics of collecting 1 million signatures, that's why they've proposed it - to make it more difficult. Keep up. Jon continues...

...this working document from the EP aims to pour cold water on any notion that participatory democracy, as if that could somehow challenge the house elected by the people.

EU Parliament doesn't want to be challenged? Of course it doesn't want to be challenged by something as inconvenient as EU citizens' views. It's a mere talking shop so it knows very little about genuine democracy anyway.

For all Jon's intellect there's a naive quality about it all that's really quite touching. It reflects similar sentiments by the equally good (now sadly defunct) pro-EU blogger Julien Frisch. And that is the problem with being a perestroika europhile, the system never was intended to be democratic so expecting otherwise means that you are doomed to constant disappointment.

Democracy is best served within the model of a sovereign nation state. But the EU from the very outset was designed to destroy the concept of the nation state (due to the experiences of the WWI & WWII) and to remove democracy and power from the people to bureaucrats. These bureaucrats would, apparently, not only 'know best' but would serve the institution first and foremost. This is not a conspiracy but the open objectives of the EU's founding fathers, particularly Jean Monnet.

The fundamental flaw in Monnet's theory, is that in reality there is only two ways to govern the people; democracy or tyranny. Tyranny is the natural state when unaccountable people are left unchecked with power and money; democracy is the only natural antidote. Making politicians accountable forces them to listen and forces them to behave. It's no coincidence for example that the biggest abuses of the expenses system were by MPs in safe seats.

Monnet believed that bureaucrats in a supranational state, free from the shackles of nationalistic concerns would make judgments that would prevent another war. In reality all it does is provide an environment where they can enrich themselves unhindered, especially true as the real purpose of the EU was to evolve under a cloak of stealth:

Europe’s nations should be guided towards the super-state without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation.’

So, yes in an ideal world I would love to see those in power altruistically do the best for humanity, in the same way I wish that my wife didn't have MS. But that's not how life works.

Expecting the EU to become more democratic is like asking the wheel to be less round.

Power To The People?

Waugh notes today that:

"David Cameron today just unveiled plans to ensure that any petition of 100,000 people would be eligible for debate in Parliament. Any petition with 1 million signatures would result in a bill being tabled in Parliament."

Now I wonder which anti-democratic organisation he got that idea from? As Waugh rightly points out:

Heck, this could even be a UKIP wet dream. Imagine a simple "In or Out of Europe" referendum bill. Despite Mr Cameron's enthusiasm for more 'power to the people' today, the party business managers may suddenly find that there is not a lot of Parliamentary time for such a troublesome item.

Of course, rather like the EU Citizen's Initiative, the actual process will be made as difficult as possible. There will be no bill on a referendum on the UK's membership because Cameron has already said he won't hold one as he knows that he will lose:

I don’t want an ‘in or out’ referendum because I don’t think out is in Britain’s interests.”

Still, it creates more 'power to the people' type headlines and more evidence that we're changing one 'useless New Labour headline obsessed government' for another.

Update: ConservativeHome has its take here. I agree with ConHome that the devil's in the detail and if Cameron goes ahead it will be a brave decision. Personally I think the suggestion will never see the light of day again but in these internet times it's far more difficult not to be held to account.

Dublin MEP Argues Against Democracy

The European Citizens' Initiative is an 'innovation' of the Lisbon Treaty, and is laughably aimed at increasing democracy in the EU.

Currently in a consultation period regarding the implementation detail which is due to end on 31st January, the initiative seeks to enable EU citizens, to petition directly the European Commission to bring forward an initiative of interest to them in an area of EU competence (though the actual process is likely to be made as difficult as possible).

This possible example of people power (I use the term lightly) is making some MEPs rather nervous (my emphasis):

Fine Gael Dublin MEP Gay Mitchell warned the Oireachtas European Affairs committee that there could be unintended consequences. “I could see a coalition of Youth Defence or whatever they’re calling themselves now, UKIP, [UK Independence Party], the communist left and the Dublin confederation of mothers of seven or whatever you want, getting together very easily,” he said.

They could be “putting together 0.2 per cent of the population across Europe and then saying what scoundrels the EU is for ignoring the wishes the people.”

I mean how dare we? Fancy using a device intended to make the EU more open and democratic to tell the EU to be...er...more open and democratic!

What planet are these people on?