SURVEY ON THE PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION DATA REQUIREMENT IN THE CITIZENS’ INITIATIVE

ECAS is actively taking part in the discussions on the European Citizens’ Initiative, a new tool for participatory democracy in Europe. Considering that citizens’ participation can only be achieved by directly addressing its end users, the citizens, we would like to ask your opinion about the Commission’s requirement to ask the signatories of a citizens’ initiative for personal identification data.
For this purpose, we have prepared a 3 question survey whose aim is to assess the citizens’ position on the regulation and to facilitate the European Parliament’s task of defending your point of view.

Your data will be handled according to the latest Europe directive on data protection (2002/58/EC).

What is the Citizens’ Initiative?

The Citizens’ Initiative has its legal basis in the Article 11 of the Treaty of Lisbon, where it is stated that “Not less than one million citizens who are nationals 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 act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties”.

How will it work?

In March 2010, a draft regulation for the Citizens’ Initiative was published; it received a response from the Council in June 2010.
The draft regulation’s key components are:

- The initiative should be related to an area falling within the competence of the Commission and should not be manifestly against the values of the European Union (e.g. it will not be possible to ask the Commission to reintroduce the death penalty) .
- The signatures should be coming at least from one third of the European member states. The European Parliament has suggested one quarter.
- The minimum number of signatures will be calculated on a digressively proportional basis, where smaller countries will be asked to provide a proportionally higher number of signatures.
- It will be possible to collect signatures online.
- A proof of identification will be asked when registering an initiative. The validation of signatures will be carried out by the member states.
- After 100,000 signatures have been collected, the Commission will investigate whether the initiative is admissible. - The timeframe for collecting the signatures will be limited to 12 months. The Parliament might try to extend the timeframe to 18-24 months.
- The European Commission will adopt a communication on its results and its decision on the follow-up.
- The organizers of a citizens’ initiative shall ensure that all personal data collected is not used for any other purpose than its indicated support for that initiative and shall destroy all statements of support received for that initiative and any copies thereof at its latest one month after submitting that initiative to the Commission or 18 months after the date of registration of a proposed Citizens’ Initiative, whichever is the earlier.
- The competent authority shall use the personal data for the purpose of verifying the statements of support and shall destroy all statements of support and copies thereof at the latest one month after issuing the certificate of verification.

Providing personal identification data

The Council has produced a mock-up version of the Statement of Support Form.

The Council highlighted that Member States will be requested to conduct random control checks on the signatures. For this purpose, it considers necessary for the signatories of a Citizens’ initiative to provide official personal identification data.
In the Statement of Support form, the mandatory fields are: 1) name of the signatory, 2) address, 3) date and place of birth, 4) nationality, 5) email address (not mandatory) and 6) identity card or passport numbers. Some countries (namely the UK, Denmark, Slovakia, Finland and the Netherlands) will require 1-5 but not 6) personal identification data.

The European Parliament’s point of view

Currently, debates are taking place in the Parliament. Almost all major political groups have held public hearings in order to test views on the regulation. A widespread concern was raised as to whether the personal identification data would discourage many citizens from signing up for initiatives, due to the fear of misuse of their personal data.

Do you agree with the Council or do you think it is a step too far? We would like to hear your opinion. Please click here to take part in the survey.