A Few Remarks on the Institution of the European Citizens' Initiative in the European Union

The article includes a critical analysis of chosen aspects of the institution of the citizens’ initiative in the European Union. It was introduced to the legal system of the EU by the Treaty of Lisbon and by Regulation No 211/2011 of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 February 2011. The examined issue has not been discussed comprehensively in the legal literature yet. On the one hand, the author gives his assent about such elements of the citizens’ initiative in the EU as the minimum number of countries from which signatories must come and the minimum number of signatories from one Member State, i.e. issues which should be apparently the most controversial. On the other hand, in the main part of the study, the author tries to argue that the form and nature of the initiative should be assessed negatively. Unformulated form of the above-mentioned institution may lead to deformation or misinterpretation of citizens’ proposal by the European Commission. Furthermore, the indirect character of the citizens’ initiative entitled to state that we do not deal with a variety of “legislative initiative” but rather with a variety of “legislative inspiration”. To sum up, the author anticipates that the examined political institution will not contribute to solve the problem known as “democratic deficit” in the EU. His opinion is based on a general remark that without changing the actual, liberal model of European integration on the republican one, there are no prospects to ensure effective participation of EU citizens in public life.