The Committee on Constitutional Affairs adopted a report
drafted by Gerard ONESTA (Greens/EFA, FR) and proposed a revision of
the Rules of Procedure with regard to the petitions process. The report
called for the inclusion of the following rules:
- where
a petition is signed by several persons, the signatories shall designate
a representative and deputy representatives who shall be regarded as the
petitioners for the purposes of implementation of the rules. Where no
such designation has occurred the first signatory or another appropriate
person shall be regarded as the petitioners;
- currently
the Rules of Procedure do not provide for the withdrawal of support for
the petition by the petitioner, and this is remedied in the proposal;
- the
Bureau may decide that petitions and correspondence with petitioners may
be drafted in other languages used in a Member State (such as Basque or
Galician);
- the
committee responsible must establish the admissibility or otherwise of
the petition in accordance with Article 194 of the EC Treaty. If it
fails to reach a consensus, it shall be declared admissible at the
request of at least one quarter of the members of the committee;
- if
a petition is inadmissible, where possible, alternative means of redress
may be recommended;
- petitions,
once registered, shall as a general rule become public documents, and
the name of the petitioner and the contents of the petition may be
published. However, the petitioner may request that his name be withheld
in order to protect his privacy, in which case Parliament must respect
such a request;
- the
petitioner may request that the petition be treated confidentially, in
which case suitable precautions will be taken by Parliament to ensure
that the contents are not made public;
- petitioners
may be invited to participate in meetings of the committee if their
petition is to be the subject of discussion, or they may request to be
present;
- with
regard to an admissible petition, the committee may decide to draw up an
own-initiative report, and provisions are made for this;
- the
committee may request assistance from the Commission, notably through
information on the application of Community law or compliance therewith,
as well as by supplying any information or documents relevant to the
petition. Representatives of the Commission shall be invited to attend
meetings of the committee;
- a new rule of citizen's initiative states that when
Parliament is informed that the Commission has been invited to submit a
proposal for a legal act under Article 11(4) of the EU Treaty, the
Committee on Petitions shall ascertain whether this is likely to affect
its work and, if need be, shall inform those petitioners who have
addressed a petition on related subjects. However, this amendment may
not take a legal effect before the entering into force of the Treaty of
Lisbon.