Parliament approves bill on citizens’ initiative
Signatures of 50,000 citizens needed to put forward proposed legislation
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Parliament gave its unanimous approval on Wednesday to proposed legislation allowing for citizens to put forward legislative proposals.
Under the measure, which takes effect in March, one or more citizens will be entitled to make initiatives for new legislation if they get the support of at least 50,000 citizens with a right to vote.
The signatures can either be collected on paper or they can be submitted on the internet.
Online signatories of a citizen’s initiative are required to register in advance, supplying their personal information. This prevents the same person from signing the same initiative more than once.
The names of the signatories become public information when the initiative is submitted. Before that happens, the names of the signatories may not be published.
Initiatives will not be processed if they are in violation of human rights, attack an ethnic group, or are otherwise inappropriate. “One can hope that when initiatives are submitted, they should be carefully considered and should be of considerable societal significance”, said MP Kimmo Sasi (Nat. Coalition Party).
The initiative was praised by MPs of all parties, but there were suspicions among the True Finns that it would be difficult for initiatives to actually win approval.
Under the law, Parliament is obliged to handle all citizens’ initiatives that meet the criteria, but it is not obliged to promote the initiatives. The same procedure currently applies to legislative initiatives made by individual Members of Parliament.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 8.12.2011 - TODAY |
 Parliament approves bill on citizens’ initiative |
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