site.btaCitizens Must Be Actively Involved in EU Decision-Making, Especially in Times of Global Instability, Says ECAS Director Kavrakova

Citizens must be actively involved in decision-making processes in the European Union, particularly at a time of international instability and ahead of difficult political choices, Assya Kavrakova, Executive Director of the European Citizen Action Service, said in a BTA interview in Brussels during Civil Society Week organized by the European Economic and Social Committee.

She said that citizens are the ultimate beneficiaries of legislation and that the success of its implementation largely depends on them.

“The extent to which legislation will be implemented successfully depends very much on how legitimate it is in the eyes of citizens, because they are the ones who encounter it in their daily lives,” Kavrakova said, adding that “even the most ambitious policies, which may be meaningful, would fail without public support”.

She pointed out that under the current international circumstances, the European Union is likely to have to take unpopular decisions, including those involving the redistribution of resources and the adoption of new policies. In her view, however, such measures can only succeed if citizens are engaged in the decision-making process and support them.

Kavrakova also emphasized the importance of the European Citizens’ Initiative, which she described as a unique tool for citizen participation in democratic processes at EU level. Through this instrument, citizens from at least seven EU Member States can, if they collect one million signatures, ask the European Commission to propose legislation on a specific issue.

According to her, not only the European Commission but also other EU institutions and Member States need to be more engaged in follow-up action on citizens’ initiatives.

“There must be mechanisms for recognizing demands not only from so-called successful initiatives – those that have collected one million signatures. Of course, in their case this should be unquestionable, but initiatives that have not reached this threshold should also be taken seriously, because they show what citizens need and what they want,” she added.

Kavrakova also stressed that Bulgaria has not been a country initiating European Citizens’ Initiatives. The only such attempt was the initiative “No EU Funds for countries without an independent judiciary and rule of law,” which, she said, did not even reach the stage of collecting public support.