Resolution on public consultations and their availability in all EU languages

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on public consultations and their availability in all EU languages.

The resolution was tabled by the EPP and S&D groups.

It notes that the Commission has proposed designating 2013 as the European Year of Citizens in order to raise people's awareness of the benefits and rights afforded by EU citizenship and stimulate their active participation in Union policy-making. Parliament feels that well designed and communicated public consultations are one of the main tools giving substance to the EU's policy of transparency, but to date, their potential for bridging the communication and information gap between citizens and the EU has not been fully exploited.

It calls on the Commission to actively seek communication with ordinary citizens by making full use of existing communication channels to distribute consultations to the general public and conduct them, in a targeted way, in conjunction with NGOs and other stakeholders. The Commission must ensure that every EU citizen's right to address the EU institutions in any of the EU official languages is fully respected and implemented by ensuring that public consultations are available in all EU official languages, that all consultations are treated equally and that there is no language-based discrimination between consultations.

Parliament asks the Commission to:

• ensure that all consultations are understandable to ordinary citizens and are carried out over a sufficiently long period of time to allow for increased participation;
• guarantee the right of disabled people to be consulted using accessible formats, in view of the fact that disabled people have greater difficulties since they need accessible formats to facilitate communication.