Commission decides to register a new European Citizens' Initiative on Environmental Protection

Today, the European Commission decided to register the European Citizens' Initiative “call for action — environmental protection in all policies”. The organisers of the initiative call on the Commission to propose legislation to ensure that Member States take environmental aspects into account by adopting national legislation. The Commission has acknowledged that, from a legal point of view, this European Citizens' Initiative can be given green light because it fulfils all the relevant conditions. At this stage, the Commission has not yet seen the substance of the proposal.

Next steps

From today, the organisers of this initiative can start collecting signatures. If at least one million people from at least seven different Member States are supported by this European Citizens' Initiative within a year, the Commission will be obliged to respond. The Commission may decide whether the action put forward in the initiative is to be taken further. Its decision must be reasoned.

General information

The European Citizens' Initiative was introduced by the Lisbon Treaty as an opportunity for citizens to define EU agenda. This instrument was officially launched in April 2012.

The conditions for the legal admissibility of the initiative are: (1) The action proposed in the initiative is not manifestly outside the Commission's mandate to submit a legislative proposal, (2) it is not manifestly offensive, insignificant or provocative, and (3) it is not in contradiction with the values of the European Union.

Since the introduction of this instrument, the Commission has received 109 requests for a European Citizens' Initiative, from which 85 were legally accepted and were registered respectively.