This past Monday, the question of the European Commission’s rejection of the most supported European Citizens’ Initiative [ECI] in history came before the highest court in Europe, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union. ‘One of Us’, which earned the support of nearly 2 million EU citizens, had all of its legislative proposals calling for an end to EU funds being spent on oversees abortions and research which requires the destruction of the human embryo rejected outright on the sole grounds that the Commission held an opposing ideological view.
These proceeding, before 15 judges and an Advocate General, lasted more than 2 hours and included exchanges between the judges and council for both parties. The Commission was extensively challenged on its position that it could reject an ECI based on undefined political value judgments and that its decisions not to take up the legislative proposals of an ECI should receive the most limited standard of judicial review.
‘One of Us’ decried that the creation of the ECI was meant to overcome the perception among Europeans that the EU is an undemocratic institution. The outright rejection of the most supported ECI in history simply because of viewpoint discrimination, counsel for ‘One of Us’ argued, is the very definition of an undemocratic action.
Roger Kiska of the Christian Legal Centre, commenting on the hearings, noted that “just like suggesting that a freedom of expression which limits people to expressing ideas that everyone already agrees with is no freedom at all, so too is a right of democratic participation to propose legislation which only the Commission ideologically agrees with not a real democratic right. By definition, the Commission already proposes legislation with which it ideologically agrees with. The ECI has no added value whatsoever under such circumstances.”
The Advocate General is set to deliver his opinion on the 13th of June, which will then inform the Grand Chamber in their deliberations. A final judgment is likely forthcoming in early fall. Currently, despite having no legislative competency over questions involving the unborn child under its defined powers as set out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the European Commission nevertheless provides extensive funding to abortion providers outside of the EU, as well as funding embryonic stem cell research as part of the Horizon 2020 Framework. The ‘One of Us’ ECI sought to amend existing legislation to prohibit such expenditures.