EUROPEAN STANDARDS AND EXPERIENCE IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CIVIL INITIATIVES

Abstract

The specifics of the implementation of civic initiatives in the European Union and the EU Member States are analyzed, in particular through the mechanism of the European civic initiative and the procedures laid down in the legislation of certain European countries (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, etc.). The procedural part of the implementation of the European civil initiative through the stages: the creation of an initiative group, the formulation of the text of the initiative with the indication of its main requirement, the registration of the initiative by the European Commission, the collection of signatures in support of the initiative and their verification, the formation of a package of documents for consideration of the initiative by the European Commission. The course of individual European civil initiatives is considered with further assessment of the mechanism testing. It was found out that the political and legal basis for expressing civil demands in the studied countries provided for the articulation of the public request for changes through referendums (national and local) and support for petitions at different levels, while the institution of civil initiative has not yet taken place as a fullfledged means of qualitative transformations. It is revealed that only a few EU member states have separate laws to promote initiatives from below. These legislative shortcomings are compensated by articles of the constitution, laws on referendums, petitions, etc. Assessing the domestic practices of regulating civil initiatives, it is stated that at the present stage there is no universal algorithm enshrined in the legislation for the implementation of civil initiative. However, it is emphasized that this problem is partially solved for the local level, and some norms that make it possible to articulate public demand at the highest managerial level are contained both in the Constitution of Ukraine and in a number of legislative acts. It is summarized that civic initiatives in Europe are rather a tool for informing, forming a request or communication between civil society and the authorities, since even verified initiatives do not oblige the relevant subjects of managerial decision-making to amend the current laws that are mandatory for all.