This is how citizens can contribute to shaping European legislation and policies.
The European Consumer Centre in Spain (ECC-Spain) takes a look at the different tools that citizens have at their disposal to make their voices heard and participate in the creation of European Union (EU) rules. The first form of participation is the opportunity we all have to vote in the European elections held every five years to elect representatives to the European Parliament. But this is not the only one, there are many other ways in which EU citizens can influence European rules:
- European Citizens' Initiative. Citizens can use this channel to urge the European Commission to propose new legislation on a specific issue.
- Petitions to the European Parliament. These petitions will allow you to examine a matter of concern to any citizen.
- Complaints at EU level. Citizens can complain to the European Commission about any measure (legislative, regulatory or administrative), inaction or practice by an EU country that they consider to be in breach of EU law. Complaints must be about breaches of EU law by the administrations of EU countries.
- European Ombudsman. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about maladministration and looks into wider systemic issues affecting the EU institutions.
- European Citizens' Panels. These are made up of randomly selected groups of citizens from the 27 Member States to discuss, at European level, key upcoming proposals that affect us all. The European Citizens' Panels make recommendations to be taken into account by the European Commission in defining policies and initiatives.
- Citizen’s Engagement Platform. This is a space to engage citizens and debate EU policies. Here, citizens can participate by posting their contributions, as well as commenting on or subscribing to comments made by others.
- ‘Have your say’. website. Citizens can register on this platform to share their views on Commission initiatives. In this way, they will contribute to the preparatory work on EU legislation at various stages of the process.
In addition, roadmaps, draft rules, proposals and adopted acts are usually subject to a four-week comment period.
Source of information: European Commission