Justin Greenwood
The European Citizens' Initiative: bringing the EU closer to its citizens?
Greenwood, Justin
Authors
Abstract
In defiance of accounts which see the European Union (EU) as structurally incompatible with democracy, the Lisbon Treaty set out the general right and specific means for citizens to participate in EU decision-making. Whilst the Treaty codified long-established practices of representative democracy and of dialogue with civil society organizations, it also notably introduced a new measure, the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), commencing in 2012. The ECI has limited formal powers, with no ability to mandate political institutions. It is promoted by the European Commission as an agenda-setting and participatory democracy measure, rather than one of direct democracy. Nonetheless, it has an elevated status within one of the current European Commission’s ten strategic priorities and is remarkable in a number of ways. First, it differs from the European Commission’s established partnerships and dialogue with organized interests by focusing on direct forms of wider citizen participation. Second, it is the world’s first transnational citizens’ initiative, with aspirations to help build an EU-wide public sphere. These aspirations were assessed in a 2017 review of the measure, proposing the introduction of a number of reforms aimed at tackling limited impact to date. This article evaluates the impact of the ECI in its first 5 years and then discusses the proposed reforms in terms of their potential to increase public deliberation. It develops and appraises evaluative criteria that help to assess whether institutionalizing contention, even in ways highly critical of EU institutions, might enhance public deliberation and bring the EU closer to its citizens.
Citation
GREENWOOD, J. 2019. The European Citizens' Initiative: bringing the EU closer to its citizens? Comparative European politics [online], 17(6), pages 940-956. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-018-0138-x
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Sep 14, 2018 |
Online Publication Date | Oct 16, 2018 |
Publication Date | Dec 31, 2019 |
Deposit Date | Nov 1, 2018 |
Publicly Available Date | Oct 17, 2019 |
Journal | Comparative European Politics |
Print ISSN | 1472-4790 |
Electronic ISSN | 1740-388X |
Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan (part of Springer Nature) |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 17 |
Issue | 6 |
Pages | 940-956 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-018-0138-x |
Keywords | European Citizens’ Initiative; Lisbon Treaty; Democracy; Political participation |
Public URL | http://hdl.handle.net/10059/3204 |
Files
GREENWOOD 2019 The European Citizens' Initiative
(240 Kb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
You might also like
Inside the black box of trilogues: introduction to the special issue.
(2021)
Journal Article
Organized interests and trilogues in a post-regulatory era of EU policy-making.
(2021)
Journal Article
Trilogues in council: disrupting the diplomatic culture?
(2020)
Journal Article
Black boxes and open secrets: trilogues as 'politicised diplomacy'.
(2020)
Journal Article