Sir, – The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), as introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, allows citizens to request new EU legislation once a million signatures from a significant number of member states have been collected, asking the European Commission to do so.
There are ongoing petitions on a wide range of topics, including a quality education policy for the EU.
In order to sign the online petition, you have to select the member state you come from, and enter information that proves your identity. For example, for Luxembourg and Malta one simply has to simply enter a National Identity Card number. In the case of France, one has the possibility of selecting from a long list of Identifying documents, such as passport, titre de séjour, carte nationale d’identité, etc.
However, for Ireland, one has to provide an address and one has to be “a permanent resident in Ireland”.
This means Irish people like myself living abroad cannot sign this petition as I do not have a Luxembourgish national ID-number and I am not permanently resident in Ireland, though I visit Dublin on an almost monthly basis.
Why did the Irish authorities not permit Irish people to also select a passport as a way to prove identity, so, by entering one’s passport number, one’s identity could be confirmed? This is a clear case of discrimination. Irish people would seem to have less of a voice in the EU? Irish citizens who have emigrated to other EU countries can’t participate in this unique democratic process, in the same way that other EU nationals can. Is this fair? – Yours, etc,