Legislative initiative of citizens in Romania and at the European level

Abstract

The citizens’ initiative right enables them to directly articipate in the law-making process. Issues of great social importance can thus be brought to the attention of the ordinary legislator who is called to embed into a normative content the will of those whom it represents. The importance of the citizens’ initiative right for the strengthening of democracy led to its enshrining into States’ Constitutions, as well as its stipulation into EU regulations. Nonetheless, even though, in theory, the citizens’ initiative right represents a basic element in terms of participation of the people in the democratic decision-making process, in practice, the purpose of the regulation has not been reached. Thus, the citizens’ initiative right is rarely exercised, also because of a lack of information on its utility, significance and mechanisms. Based on these realities, within this study, we shall carry out an examination of the regulations concerning citizens’ legislative initiative in Romanian law and at the Europea...