Foodlaw-Reading
Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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Commission Daily News, 23 October 2017
This morning, First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Commissioner for Health & Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis received the organisers of the 'Stop Glyphosate' European Citizens' Initiative, after they collected and submitted to the Commission over 1 million signatures in support of their Initiative.
This is the 4th successful European Citizens' Initiative so far. The 'Stop Glyphosate' Initiative calls on the European Commission "to propose to member states a ban on glyphosate, to reform the pesticide approval procedure, and to set EU-wide mandatory reduction targets for pesticide use". In line with the Citizens' Initiative regulation, the Commission has invited the organisers to Brussels to present their ideas in more depth.
A public hearing will also be arranged in the European Parliament to allow all stakeholders to present their views, and then the Commission will decide, within 3 months of submission of the Initiative (on Friday 6 October 2017), whether to act by proposing legislation, act in some other way to achieve the goals of the Initiative, or not act at all; all three options are possible under Article 11(4) of the Treaty of the European Union. In all cases, the Commission will present a Communication explaining its reasoning.
The European Citizens' Initiative is a valuable tool in the hands of citizens, and allows them to contribute to shaping EU law and policy. The Commission recently presented a proposed reform of the Citizens' Initiative Regulation, to make the tool even more accessible to citizens and to encourage its wider use.
For more details, see: http://ec.europa.eu/citizens-initiative/public/initiatives/successful/details/2017/000002
