Solidarity Poland propose initiative that would neutralise EU legislation.
The European Commission has now accepted ten citizens’ initiatives, a form of petition for legislation that was created by the Lisbon treaty. But an initiative accepted in August from Poland’s labour unions may not be quite what the treaty’s drafters had in mind.
The political party Solidarity Poland, which is a breakaway from the Law and Justice party, and a group of Polish labour unions – including the one that shares its name – have submitted the first citizens’ initiative that would actually neutralise EU legislation. The petition calls for the EU to “suspend the 2009 EU climate and energy package”, which includes the emissions-trading scheme, emissions-reduction targets and energy decarbonisation.
The initiative would effectively halt all major climate legislation now being implemented by the EU. According to the petition, these policies should only be revived if “a climate agreement is signed by major CO2 emitters – China, US, and India”.
The Solidarity union is assisting in the collection of signatures for the petition, a process that will begin on Friday (28 September). The effort is being supported by the Polish Trade Unions Forum and the Employers Association of Coal Mining. It is being spearheaded by Solidarity Poland. Poland’s deputy prime minister and head of the ministry of economy has already supported the petition in Polish media.
Support has also come from a British anti-climate action campaigner, the leader of a far-right Danish youth group and an assistant to a far-right Austrian MEP.
According to the papers filed by the petitioners, the initiative has so far managed to raise €2,500 for the task of collecting the required one million signatures. The sum is a paltry amount compared to other initiatives, but it comes from an impeccable source – the Europe for Freedom and Democracy group in the European Parliament.
Of course, a citizens’ initiative, even if successfully completed, is not binding on the Commission, so it is much to early to speculate on how the Commission might respond. But not too early to speculate on whether the rest of the European Parliament might be tempted to rename its Solidaranos?c? Esplanade.
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