UNION WITHOUT CITIZENS?

MIROSŁAW PIOTROWSKI

‘One of us’ is an European Citizen Initiative which was supported by over 1.8. million Europeans. It was established according to a suitable writing of the slimmed euro-constitution, that is, the Lisbon Treaty, whose purpose was to bring the European Union closer to citizens. The treaty was also formally a citizenship of the European Union. So, since then every Pole has had a double citizenship, similarly as inhabitants of all other EU countries. Theoretically, the Union is listening to our voice, and, what is more, we can influence its legislation through the European Initiative. Beautifully sounding provisions of the most important EU documents can successfully compete with articles of the constitution of the Soviet Union, because in both cases their practical implementation borders with fiction. Complicated procedures caused a situation that most undertaken civil initiatives failed on half way. In the finish line there is an initiative ‘One of us’ which the European Commission acknowledged as the one fulfilling formal requirements. The issue is important. It concerns prohibition of financing experiments on human embryos and abortion from EU means, that is, also from our Polish taxes. Finally, the European Commission, called ‘a guard of treaties’, and unofficially, a super-government, rejected this initiative. Organizers were outraged by the fact that the European Commission did not refer to the essence of the initiative at all, which they judged as an ostentatious neglecting citizens. The issue was submitted to the EU Judgment Tribunal. However, in the opinion of the Commission, the Tribunal is not competent to investigate whether the Commission has fulfilled its legal duty. When I am writing these words, the dispute has not been finished yet. The issue is unprecedented. For it does not concern the essence of the initiative, but the statement that the European Commission, not deriving from the direct democratic election, is beyond any kinds of control. In the context of its actions towards the European Citizen Initiative, there are also the epithets such as ‘arrogance’, ‘cynicism’, ‘dud’, etc. A discussion about the ‘deficit of democracy’ in the European Union is returning. In this European citizen dispute one can see clearly that the Commission knows everything the best and does not wish any control. But can it exist without citizens?

AA

„Niedziela” 16/2015

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl