CITIZENS' INITIATIVE BY MARCH 2012.

• Position: Brief article

The European citizens' initiative (ECI) should be up and running in March 2012, significantly later than the initially planned launch date of 1 December 2010, exactly one year after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Over two months after a three-way agreement was reached between the European Commission, the Parliament and the Council on this new instrument, the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council formally adopted the regulation, on 14 February. Actual entry into force should take another month. After that, citizens will have to wait some more as member states have requested 12 months in order to implement the legislation at national level. Once in place...