Home > 5.1 Nature of the referendum > ALBANIA - Joint Opinion on the Draft Law on the Legislative Initiative of the Citizens
 
 
 
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Paragraph 14
 

The right to citizen’s legal initiative is also in conformity with the European standards and the Venice Commission’s recommendations. In particular, in its “Report on legislative initiative” (CDL-AD(2008)035, par. 80-83), the Venice Commission has affirmed that, while presenting a legislative initiative citizens are “given an opportunity to initiate laws and consequently to bring directly to the attention and the agenda of the parliament their own input and ideas, and not only to consent to or disagree with a bill already elaborated and drafted”, although “the final word and decision on the fate of this initiative will remain within the representative authority, that is the Parliament”. At the same time, the Venice Commission has added that, given the current debates on the democratic deficit taking place in Europe, “the legislative initiative of citizens is increasingly regarded as a worthy corrector of the inevitable imperfections of indirect democracy”, as demonstrated by Article 11.4 of the Lisbon Treaty with respect to the EU institutional system.