Originally established to reduce the democracy deficit under which the European Union suffered, this instrument was questioned after the two treaties were rejected by a part of the European citizens. Waiting for the continuation of the Lisbon Treaty ratification process, the citizens’ initiative should not be forgotten.

Since the Irish “no” in 2008 following the Dutch “neen” and the French “non”, the European construction is at a hold. Embedded in the intergovernmental negotiations about the European institutions, the European integration process has to overcome the deadlock on the democracy deficit. The improvement of institutional functioning can only be measured by the gap between the European citizens and its leaders on the European and the national level.

A European question requires a European answer !

Therefore, the EU has to answer the questions of legitimation of its actions. Apart from the elections concerning the European Parliament, the EU does not give any rights to its citizens in expressing their choice and preferences regarding European affairs. And when a referendum is organized regarding a European question, it is a national one and thus left to a national referendum. Shouldn’t there be, for all questions concerning the EU as a whole, a pan-European referendum ?

The national referenda concerning European questions should not have the same force of legitimation as a pan-European referendum. The vote of about 305,000 Maltese cannot be compared with the vote of 60.5 million Germans. As the referenda concerning the European constitution in 2005 in France and the Netherlands, or recently in Ireland regarding the Lisbon Treaty have shown, these national referenda can block the integration process, as they are taking place before each new treaty can be set into force.

Taking the initiative for launching the debate

Considering the fact that there are strictly European topics for the citizens, and taking the fact that the initiatiors can mobilize financial resources and get access to the media, we think that it should be possible to organize a pan-european referendum thanks to the “right on initiative” embedded in article 11.4. Treaty of Lisbon. This article permits 400 million citizens in an eligible age to vote, to express their opinion due to the citizens initiative and also to directly influence the European decisions.

No less than one million citizens who are citizens of a significant number of member states may take the initiative of inviting the European Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal action of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties.

The European Union is more than just an association of sovereign states. Therefore, we need to find new instruments in order to democratically legitimize the decision making. It is only via the European citizens that opinions and clear majorities can emerge.

Concerning the success of such a European initiative, we would like to point out that already the launch of one is a victory per se. Actually, this shows that we can speak of the EU in another way than the usual simplified messages. A European initiative, and thus its result, i.e. a pan-European referendum can contribute to a trans-European debate and thus to the creation of a European public space. This European public space is not designed to substitute the national public spaces. On the contrary, its existence is dependent on the interaction with it.

Article 11.4 by no means is the miracle solution, but it represents a possibility to reduce the democracy deficit in Europe. As such it would be a shame to ignore it. What happens, if we are able to collect several million of votes after having launched a trans-European debate? And more, if we collect such a number of votes that the Commission would be forced to take them into account?