Citizens' initiatives and Sunday trading

Quote

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing."  Edmund Burke

News

A little-known provision of the EU's Lisbon Treaty allows citizens to gather signatures in order to petition the European Parliament to debate new legislation.  The rules being proposed are that one million signatures would need to be gathered from people in at least nine European member states over a 12 month period.  If campaigners succeed, European officials would be required to prepare draft legislation or give a reason why not within four months.

Martin Kastler, a member of the European Parliament, wants to see a European-wide law banning shops from opening on Sundays, as in his native Bavaria.  Supported by trades unions and churches, his campaign has collected 17,000 signatures so far.  Britain's Keep Sunday Special campaign managed to prevent Sunday trading for 8 years from 1986 to 1994, after which large shops were permitted to open for a maximum of 6 hours on Sundays.  Now the big retailers in Britain are seeking all out deregulation - the last hurdle in the way of a 24/7 shopping culture. 

It is highly commendable that the EU should permit citizens' initiatives to increase accountability and prevent the European Commission - the appointed officials who currently have a near monopoly on introducing European legislation - from being wholly out of touch with the views and wishes of ordinary citizens.  A wide distribution of political power is essential to a relational society.

Read on...

The Keep Sunday Special campaign is run by our colleages at the Relationships Foundation; to read a brief summary of the campaign and the main reasons for protecting Sunday as a shared day of rest click here www.keepsundayspecial.org.uk/Web/Content/Default.aspx?Content=80

Walk the talk

Often when we see someone in the street gathering signatures for a petition, we give them a wide berth!  Perhaps the next time this happens, you might stop and commend the person for their time and effort in involving other people in trying to change a law - whether or not you approve of the petition itself.

Alternatively, you might want to sign the European-wide petition on Sunday trading - www.free-sunday.eu/en/content/landingpage and the Keep Sunday Special petition against any extension of Sunday opening hours in UK - www.keepsundayspecial.org.uk/Web/Petition/.

The last word

From the Bible, Proverbs 15:22  "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."