European Voice
The European Commission today (31 March) set out the rules for using a “citizens’ initiative” which allows one million people to ask the Commission to propose new laws. Using the initiative, which was introduced by the Lisbon treaty, will require at least one million signatures from at least nine of the 27 member states. Organisers will also to make sure they get a minimum number of names from each country, based on the so-called digressive proportionality system, which is used to divide up seats between member states in the European Parliament.