At its heart, the European Union is a democratic body with its 28 Member States directly electing representatives to the European Parliament which meets in Strasbourg and Brussels and has the power to ratify or decline legislation proposed by the European Commission (EC). Members of the Commission are nominated by the European states and must be ratified by the European parliament.
One little known mechanism to enable citizen-level initiatives to see the light of day on the European stage is the imaginatively named “European Citizens’ Initiative”. This mechanism can be used “to propose legislation on matters where the EU has competence to legislate” and requires the support of 1 million EU citizens, drawn from at least ¼ of the EU and must garner a specified level of support in at least seven EU states. If these criteria are met then the EC must respond to the request within three months, but is not bound to propose legislation in line with a successful initiative. Currently, there are two open initiatives attempting to garner the required level of support.
One initiative that found the necessary 1 million supporters, calls on the EU to break off from negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and to decline from ratifying a similar agreement already drafted with Canada. The Commission has already declared that the initiative falls outside of its remit and it has been refused.
The petitioners claim that these agreements pose a threat to democracy and the rule of law within Europe since a proposal within them, the Investor State Dispute System, allows investors to sue state governments in certain circumstances. They fear that investors will be compensated for government proposals which have popular support, but adversely affect them. An example cited would be a future UK government decision to restore to NHS control services which have been contracted out. Other areas of concern involve social, employment, privacy and environmental policy and consumer protection implications of the agreement.
The EC remains convinced that EU standards in the contentious areas wil not need to be sacrificed in the interests of TTIP. However, the Commission acknowledges the concerns and notes a need for improvements to the agreement which it claims are being addressed in bilateral talks.