![\"1599675_811597775524167_795125120_o\"](\"https:\/\/euroalter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/1599675_811597775524167_795125120_o-192x300.jpg\")
Making Water a Human Right<\/h2>\nMaking Water a Human Right<\/h2>\nThe time has come\u00a0for the first ever European Citizens’ Initiative<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to be heard by the European institutions\u00a0having surpassed the ambitious one million signature threshold. The inaugural debate on a European Citizens Initiative was held for the \u201cRight2Water<\/a>\u201d ECI on Monday, February 17th, 2014, at the European Parliament’s premises in Brussels and organised by the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), in association with the Committee on Petitions, the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and the Committee on Development.<\/p>\n \u201cWe shall have a reason to celebrate when the European Commission acts to show that the ECI is not something that you can just shrug off<\/em>\u201d said Jan Willem Goudriaan<\/strong>,\u00a0Vice-President of the ECI\u00a0\u201cRight2Water\u201d Citizens’ Committee.<\/p>\n Following the reception of the initiative by the Commission on 20 December 2013 and the validation of\u00a01,680,172 signatures <\/strong>as final number (the minimum of signatures required to submit an ECI was one million, as for all the ongoing ECIs, whereas the number of valid signatures varies between 88% and 95% of the total handed in national authorities in each of the 28 EU countries) collected in more than 7 countries (minimum of countries where a specific threshold must be reached in order to successfully conclude the first phase of the ECI process), the European Parliament hosted the ECI\u00a0\u201cRight2Water\u201d organisers for this public hearing, which provided them with the opportunity to present their three key goals to all attendees:<\/p>\n Just a few days ago, the PETI committee<\/a> also unveiled its study on ECI and first lessons of implementation while tackling other issues and voted on two reports such as:<\/p>\n Cora Pfafferott<\/strong>, speaking on behalf of Democracy International<\/a>, the European Citizen Action Service<\/a> and the Initiative and Referendum Institute Europe<\/a> (three pioneering organisations which have joined up for the first\u00a0ECI support centre<\/a>, a new initiative aiming to provide independent information and to give first-hand advice on how to organise and implement an ECI),\u00a0explained that this public hearing could also be considered a\u00a0\u201clitmus test<\/em>\u201d for the actual, impacting\u00a0success of the European\u00a0Citizens\u2019 Initiative, which is the first agenda-setting instrument<\/strong> for citizens at transnational level in history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Since April 2012, more than 40 ECIs <\/strong>have been registered with the European Commission: 17 were refused as they dealt with issues outside the competencies of the Commission, 6 were withdrawn by the organisers and 5 failed to reach the required one million signature threshold.<\/p>\n Only seven initiatives are currently gathering statements of support<\/a>, covering a broad spectrum of issues including the employability of younger generations through investment in education, equal opportunities for education and training, the female entrepreneurship gender equality legislation<\/a>\u00a0and the the promotion of pluralism and freedom of the media in Europe<\/a><\/strong>, the latter initiated by European Alternatives with many other organisations thorough Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe public hearing<\/a> brought together representatives from the \u201cRight2Water\u201d Citizens’ Committee, MEPs and the European Commission, which will react to the initiative’s proposals by March 20th to say whether it will table new legislation. The response from the public was huge, as testified by the crowded room and more than 450 accredited participants.The Citizens’ Committee, the organisers and the hundreds of activists\u00a0who ran the signature collection campaign were all present in the room for the public hearing, and urged the\u00a0European Commission to\u00a0guarantee access to water and sanitation as a human right through appropriate legislation.\u00a0This would mean promoting the provision\u00a0of water\u00a0and sanitation as essential public services<\/strong> for all EU citizens, and giving a legal undertaking that water services will not be liberalised in the EU. The majority of MEPs attending the hearing shared the view that access to water is a basic human right, but some of them also pointed out that rules on providing all citizens with sufficient and clean drinking water and\u00a0adequate sanitation remain the remit of EU member states.<\/div>\n![\"right2water\"](\"https:\/\/euroalter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/right2water.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
Hailing the first-ever hearing on a Citizens\u2019 Initiative as \u201ca milestone in the history of European democracy being a monumental step forward from a Europe of governments to a Europe of citizens<\/em>,\u201d Gerald H\u00e4fner <\/strong>(Greens\/EFA MEP, Germany), representing the European Parliament as the Petitions Committee (PETI) Rapporteur for the Citizens\u2019 Initiative and Coordinator of the Greens Group in the EP Constitutional Affairs Committee, said \u201ctoday, the EU is switching to ‘listening mode’ as citizens present their proposals in the EP. The question now is how we can better legislate on an issue that is crucial. We are all here to recognise that clean water is a human right and should remain in public hands<\/em>\u201d.<\/div>\n![\"1547986_811597815524163_1056875926_o\"](\"https:\/\/euroalter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/1547986_811597815524163_1056875926_o-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/div>\n\n\n
![\"logo-ECI\"](\"https:\/\/euroalter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/logo-ECI.png\"){kind=logo}
This also is because EU legislation on the ECI instrument does not provide any specific rules on the actual procedure of the hearing, and that the ECI is a non-binding instrument giving the European Commission the leeway to decide whether to accept the citizen-initiated law\u00a0proposals\u00a0<\/strong>or not. For all\u00a0these reasons, the outcome of this public hearing on\u00a0\u201cRight2Water\u201d will be a decisive milestone for the future of the European Citizens\u2019 Initiative in view of the upcoming revision of its legislation in 2015.\u00a0Its success also demonstrates to citizens how valuable it is to go through the effort of drafting a law proposal and collecting one million signatures<\/strong>, which are required to submit the proposal to the European Commission.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMaro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d,<\/strong> Vice-President of the European Commissionin in\u00a0charge of Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration, declared that \u201cCitizens have shown a very clear proof that this instrument of participatory democracy works, that they would like to have a direct say and to communicate with EU institutions on how its agenda should be shaped<\/em>\u201d.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n![\"WaterRight_DEF](\"https:\/\/euroalter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WaterRight_DEF-e-logo-SMALL.jpg\"){kind=logo}
At the same time, is it also important to remember that, in spite of the clear success\u00a0of \u201cRight2Water\u201d, very few people actually know how exactly, since April 1st, 2012, we as European citizens\u2019 can directly influence European legislation through a \u201cEuropean Citizens\u2019 Initiative\u201d (also known as ECI).\u00a0This new tool for\u00a0participatory democracy<\/strong>,\u00a0introduced as a result of the Treaty of Lisbon with the express purpose of increasing participation and direct democracy at the EU level, allows citizens to collect at least one million signatures\u00a0(0.2% of\u00a0the EU population)\u00a0online or offline to call directly on the European Commission to consider introducing a specific legislative proposals of interest to them in an area of EU competence, thereby changing EU law. If they succeed, as we hope for our very first initiative to reach the public hearing stage, the first ECIs will be truly recognised as a great change in\u00a0European decision-making process\u00a0<\/strong>and agenda setting, although there are still so many challenges and barriers that make it difficult, and continue to make it difficult, for organisers to reach the number of one million signatures required to submit the proposal.\u00a0Problems such as the differing requirements in each Member State (ranging from ID number to full address and father\u2019s name that those who sign must give), the difficulties of successfully, correctly and quickly implementing the online signature collection system, the continuous impediments with backend features of signature collection software (OCS) in working smoothly, and hurdles due to the long time required to mobilise as many supporters in as many countries as possible to get behind the campaign with no specific funds available are still to be overcome. These difficulties were also expressed yesterday with the occasion of the public hearing by some of ECIs pioneers and organisers who launched their own initiatives in 2012 and 2013.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n![\"vertical_colored-positive\"](\"https:\/\/euroalter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/vertical_colored-positive-300x227.jpg\")
Although three initiatives have reportedly managed to gather enough support so far (apart from \u201cWater is a human right \/ Right2Water\u201d, we\u00a0can also mention here the ECIs\u00a0\u201cStop Vivisection<\/a>\u201d and \u201cOne of Us<\/a>\u201d with more than one million signatures each collected in less than 12 months) and the ECI \u201cWater is a human right\u201d success as the first qualifying for a public hearing with 1,680,172 valid signatures (out of total number of 1,884,790 signatures delivered to national authorities between 10 September and 23 September 2013 by the organisers and activists),\u00a0many challenges and hurdles still lay ahead for all ECI organisers: very few people actually have a clear understanding of the\u00a0ECI tool, and the procedures for conducting an initiative are still far from being citizen-friendly.\u00a0Finally, in spite of the success of the public hearing yesterday, we not know until March\u00a020th\u00a0how a successful ECI will be honoured by the institutions.<\/p>\nIn the meantime, do not forget to sign up\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>HERE<\/a> to our <\/strong>European Citizens Initiative for Media Pluralism<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0which is collecting 1 million signatures throughout Europe to push through European legislation against\u00a0concentration of media ownership\u00a0and conflict of interest. More than 100 civil society organisations are\u00a0working hard to bring the European Initiative for Media Pluralism to its own public hearing in the European Parliament before the end of 2014.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n