Environmental complaints constituted the majority of petitions sent to MEPs last year

Complaints about environmental issues like water and waste pollution constituted the majority of petitions sent to MEPs last year. On average four a day were received dealing with everything from health to human rights. Usually the petitioners want the EP to investigate cases where they think a country has broken or not applied EU law. Monday sees a debate on the performance of the Petition`s Committee in 2007.

Last year the Spanish, Germans and Romanians were the most active petitioners to the European Parliament. The total number of petitions received from the twenty seven countries was over 1500.
 
The impact petitions can have is stressed by Spanish Green MEP David Hammerstein who has prepared a report being debated this evening. He said that `petitions open the door of the EU to thousands of citizens and bring it closer to important local problems`.
 
He puts the number of Spanish petitions down to `environmental problems caused by massive tourism and urban development`.
 
The Hammerstein report calls for speedier resolution of cases and for the Commission to be more ready to tackle breaches of EU law by governments.
 
Discrimination, matters relating to the Union`s internal market (such as recognising qualifications in another country) and consumer complaints were also major causes of petitions.
 
Petitions rose by almost 50%
 
In total the number of petitions rose by almost 50% in 2007. Not all of these are admissible as they must concern areas that fall with the EU`s field of activity. About a third of those submitted failed this test.
 
Hearings, fact-finding missions and interviewing experts are just three ways MEPs on the cross-party Petitions Committee can investigate a case.
 
Once such case has be the Nord Stream Baltic sea pipeline where over 28,000 people from Lithuania and Poland complained to MEPs that the project endangered the environment.
 
If they are convinced of a case, then the 38 members on the committee can ask the European Commission to investigate infringement of EU law and if necessary launch an infringement procedure against a country forcing them to take action. MEPs can also draw a lot of unwanted public attention to cases where abuses have taken place.
 
The debate can be seen online in full this evening live from Brussels. MEPs will vote on this report Tuesday.