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During the 2014-19 parliamentary term the European Union and notably the European Parliament, through its dedicated Committee on Petitions (PETI), has continued to uphold the right of citizens to petition the EP to raise issues and concerns and to call for redress and action in areas of EU competence, by\u00a0<\/span>mobilising<\/span>\u00a0institutions and Member States both on issues at the\u00a0<\/span>centre<\/span>\u00a0of the political debate, and on \u201corphan\u201d or \u201cdormant\u201d issues.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With the aim of better serving EU citizens, the Committee has developed a Petitions Web Portal to allow an easier submission of petitions, more interaction and information services. It adopted new and updated Guidelines to facilitate the processing of petitions and the Committee\u2019s decision-making process. It also managed to introduce some positive changes in the EP\u2019s Rules of Procedure.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Cooperation with other EP committees was strengthened and improved, including through the creation of a Petitions Network. For the first time, PETI created a special Working Group, the Working Group on Child Welfare Issues, which was responsible for investigating\u00a0<\/span>a number of<\/span>\u00a0petitions on the rights of children and to report back to Committee by proposing recommendations. PETI maintained its good working relations with the Commission, the Council, Member States and the European Ombudsman. It worked closely together with EP services, notably the EP\u2019s Legal Service, and exponentially increased the use of the research expertise of the Policy Department for Citizens\u2019 Rights and Constitutional Affairs for studies and workshops, as well as of EPRS.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Furthermore, over the 2014-2019 term, it\u00a0<\/span>organised<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>a large number of<\/span>\u00a0public hearings. At the same time, the committee managed to keep the overall parliamentary activity substantially stable when comparing the number of reports, opinions, Oral Questions, resolutions and fact-finding visits made during the 2014-2019 and the 2009-2014 parliamentary terms.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Against this background, PETI continued to examine a high number of petitions raising issues in all areas of EU activity: fundamental rights, migration, the right to petition, citizenship, free movement; discrimination; European Citizens\u2019 Initiative; children\u2019s rights; the environment;\u00a0<\/span>animal welfare; disability; social policies and employment; Brexit; better law-making and application of EU law; openness, transparency, access to documents, conflicts of interest; international agreements.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Current achievements often become challenges for the future.\u00a0<\/span>This is why<\/span>\u00a0during the 9th legislature the PETI committee and the EP could further develop and exploit the potential of the\u00a0<\/span>Webportal<\/span>\u00a0and of the PETI website for communicating with citizens and as an internal instrument for the management of petitions.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In case of high numbers of petitions on certain important subjects, working groups could be established again, or own-initiative reports could be launched. Researches could\u00a0<\/span>analyse<\/span>\u00a0petitions\u2019 trends, possible innovative ways to promote the right to petition and achieve real change for petitioners, including by\u00a0<\/span>mobilising<\/span>\u00a0other institutions and Member States.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During the 2014-19 parliamentary term the European Union and notably the European Parliament, through its dedicated Committee on Petitions (PETI), has continued to uphold the right of citizens to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3073,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[137],"issuem_issue_categories":[],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3079"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3079"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3081,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3079\/revisions\/3081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=3079"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=3079"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=3079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}