my hope that citizens’ signatures would be presumed to be valid or, at least, that verification of signatures could be done simply by random sampling.
involvement of large numbers of European citizens.
Parliamentary procedure My final suggestion for the design relates to the parliamentary procedure. The law-making process launched by a citizens’ initiative must be regulated by a special parliamentary procedure. The specific provisions should be designed to fix short deadlines and to ensure a place for the sponsoring committee in all the debates and legislative committees. Dialogue between the sponsors and the legislature must be continuous in order to give a new opportunity not only for participatory democracy but also for deliberative democracy. However, I fear that it will be far from easy to secure acceptance for the involvement of the sponsors in the deliberations of the European Council. Before closing, I would like to stress that weaknesses in the operation of the citizens’ initiative could come not only from restrictive legislation, but also from the diffuse character of European public opinion. It is clear that the absence of a European demos could reduce the democratic impact of our institution. I hope that innovative ways of encouraging participation can be found which will contribute to promoting a Europe-wide political culture and the 33