Free Republic

The European Commission has dismissed a campaign to scrap funding for stem cell research and reproductive health services. The demand was made by the “One of Us” campaign, the second citizens’ initiative to reach the 1 million signatures required under the Lisbon treaty. The campaign, which has been backed by Popes Francis and Benedict, the current and former heads of the Catholic church, and backed by a number of religious organizations, sought to ban the use of EU funds for research, foreign aid programs and public health activities that are linked to the destruction of human embryos. …

Verdi, a German trade union which triggered the only successful European Citizens’ Initiative so far, is throwing its weight behind a new project on press freedom. With 2 million members, it could easily get the 1 million signatures the EU requires to lodge a citizens’ appeal. But the Lisbon Treaty also says the 1 million people must come from at least seven EU countries. The purpose-built campaign for the new project, the European initiative for media pluralism, partly funded by two foundations—Open Society and Adessium—calls on the European Commission to consider a legislative proposal to fight media concentration and to...

The European Citizens’ Initiative is struggling to gain momentum a year after being launched, bogged down by technical and bureaucratic hurdles that have prevented a single petition from meeting all the requirements, civic activists say. ECIs are a form of petition created under the 2009 Lisbon Treaty to encourage grassroots involvement in European lawmaking. Of the nearly 30 proposed ECIs, only 14 have successfully registered and just one—focusing on water rights—has gathered the required one million signatures. But the latter falls short of requirements because the signatures come only from five EU states, two short of the minimum needed. …

Fraternité 2020, the first registered European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), will start collecting signatures as soon as the organizers have overcome server problems. The organizers from the Citizens’ Committee still maintain the goal of collecting one million signatures from all over Europe by May 2013. Fraternité 2020 organizers want to enhance EU exchange programmes such as the Erasmus student exchange scheme or the European Voluntary Service (EVS) in order to contribute to a united Europe. To collect the signatures, Fraternité 2020 organizers made the decision to do it online only. Therefore, they need to set up what is called an online...

The citizens' initiative—a participative democracy tool coming into effect at the end of this week—could be used to pressure EU politicians into accepting a financial transactions tax (FTT), the European Parliament President has said. "I don't know if the next citizens' initiative would make the crisis disappear; I hope so. But a citizen's initiative to introduce the financial transactions tax could even increase the pressure on those who are still reluctant," Martin Schulz said at a press conference on Wednesday (28 March). His words come just as Germany—until now among the most ardent supporters of such a tax—appeared to concede...