L-aħħar aħbarijiet

The organisers of the initiative call on the Commission to ‘mandate a firm 10 year post accession deadline for an automatic moratorium on payments of structural and cohesion funds to a newly acceded country, until the monitoring mechanism is lifted from their judiciary.' They state that ‘the current EU legal code allows undue interpretation. Under certain conditions, the corruption among political elites in newly acceded countries may turn out to be beneficial to other countries in the Union, and the relative notion ‘temporary' to be stretched out indefinitely. Setting a strict timeframe avoids direct and indirect motivation for corruption in EU Member States. […]'

Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can take legal action when it comes to financial rules relating to the EU budget. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and has decided to register it.

Today the European Commission decided to register 3 new European citizens' initiatives: ‘Stop corruption in Europe at its root, by cutting off funds to countries with inefficient judiciary after deadline', ‘Actions on Climate Emergency' and ‘Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment.' The Commission also decided not to register a proposed European citizens' initiative entitled ‘Ensuring Common Commercial Policy conformity with EU Treaties and compliance with international law' as the actions requested manifestly fall outside the Commission's powers to act according to the EU Treaties.

'Let's put an end to the era of plastic in Europe'

The organisers of this initiative 'call on the European Commission to revise the Directive on the impact of certain plastics on the environment with the aim of banning all single-use plastics in Europe'. The initiative aims to ban 'all plastic packaging and bottles by 2027 so that concrete measures can begin to be put in place to respect the limits of our resources.'

Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can take legal action with an aim of preserving, protecting and improving the quality of the environment. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and has decided to register it.

The organisers of the initiative state that Directive 2001/18/EC on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is ‘outdated' and ask for a revision of its rules concerning new plant breeding techniques (NPBT), with the objective of facilitating 'the authorisation procedure for those products obtained through NPBTs'.

Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can take legal action in the area of the internal market and product authorisations. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and has decided to register it.

The organisers of the initiative call on the Commission 'to propose EU legislation to discourage the consumption of fossil fuels, encourage energy saving and the use of renewable sources for fighting global warming and limiting temperature increase to 1.5°C'. The objective of the initiative is to introduce a minimum price on CO2 emissions, abolish the existing system of free allowances to EU polluters and introduce a border adjustment mechanism, while allocating the revenue from carbon pricing 'to European policies that support energy saving and the use of renewable sources, and to the reduction of taxation on lower incomes'.

Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can take legal action in the areas of climate action, the environment, taxation and common commercial policy. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and has decided to register it.

The European Commission decided to register 3 new European citizens' initiatives: 'A price for carbon to fight climate change', 'Grow scientific progress: crops matter!', and 'Let's put an end to the era of plastic in Europe'.

The Commission also determined that it cannot register a proposed European citizens' initiative entitled 'EU law, minority rights and democratisation of Spanish institutions' as it does not invite the Commission to make a proposal for a legal act.

Save the bees! Protection of biodiversity and improvement of habitats for insects in Europe

The Citizens' Initiative focuses on the creation of mandatory targets 'to make the promotion of biodiversity an overall objective of the common agricultural policy; to dramatically cut the use of pesticides, ban harmful pesticides without exception and reform eligibility criteria; to promote structural diversity in agricultural landscapes; to effectively reduce nutrients (e.g. Natura 2000); to effectively establish conservation areas; to intensify research and monitoring and improve education.'

Under the Treaties, the EU can take legal action in areas such as the internal market, agricultural policy as well as the protection of public health and the quality of the environment. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it.

The organisers of this European Citizens' Initiative call on the Commission 'to propose to Member States the introduction of a tax on aviation fuel (kerosene)' claiming that 'the aviation sector enjoys tax advantages despite being one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions.'

Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can take legal action aimed at harmonisation of turnover taxes, excise duties and other forms of indirect taxation. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it.

This European Citizens' Initiative calls on the European Commission to 'impose simplified ‘Nutriscore' labelling on food products, to guarantee that consumers are provided with quality nutritional information and to protect their health'. The objectives of the initiative are to: 'make the nutritional labelling easier to read and understand […]; take action on public health issues by encouraging professionals to improve the composition of their products; [and] harmonise nutritional information at European level by imposing a single official labelling system […]'.

Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can take legal action which has as its objective the establishing and functioning of the internal market. The Commission therefore considers the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it.

The organisers of this European Citizens' Initiative state that 'the EU should pay special attention to regions with national, ethnic, cultural, religious or linguistic characteristics that are different from those of the surrounding regions'. Therefore, the organisers call on the Commission to provide an 'equal opportunity [for the regions] to access various EU funds (…) so that the EU's development can be sustained and its cultural diversity maintained'.

Under the EU Treaties, the European Commission can make proposals for legal acts defining the tasks, priority objectives and the organisation of EU Structural Funds. The Commission clarified that statements of support for this initiative may be collected, based on the understanding that they concern legal action on the tasks, priority objectives and the organisation of EU Structural Funds and provided that the actions to be financed lead to the strengthening of the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the Union. On this basis, the Commission considers the initiative legally admissible and decided to register it.