If the European Commission indeed believes that the opinions of European citizens count, if they indeed regard European Citizens’ Initiatives as an important tool for involving citizens in the European Union’s legislative process, they can pursue no other course of action than extending the deadline for the Szekler National Council’s signature collection that expired on Thursday, the Justice Minister wrote on her Facebook account.
Judit Varga wrote while the necessary one million signatures “have been collected thanks to the incredible unity of the last few days,” due to the restrictions on travel and movement introduced on account of the coronavirus epidemic, the fulfilment of the other criterion – namely that the required number of signatures must be collected in minimum seven Member States – could not be met.
She said she is aware that the organisers have already officially requested the extension of the deadline with the European Commission with reference to the present force majeure situation, and according to the latest news, a decision could be adopted on the matter next week.
She took the view that the situation is clear, and seeing the dynamism of the last few days, “the organisers will not find it hard to make their initiative a success with a deadline extended by a few months”.
If the European Commission assesses the organisers’ application for an extension in a fair manner, they could perhaps partly compensate for the fact that “for years in the past, they hindered” this cause, the Minister wrote,
The organisers won at second instance after six years of litigation before the Court of Justice of the European Union against the European Commission which did not want to give the Szeklers’ initiative the go-ahead, Ms. Varga observed, thanking everyone for their perseverance and united action.
The collection of signatures started last 7 May, and up to Thursday one million signatures had to be collected from minimum seven Member States in order for the European Commission to table the issue. The essence of this European citizens’ initiative is that the national characteristics of regions should also be taken into consideration upon the distribution of EU cohesion funds which serve to eliminate economic differences.