Mijloace de implicare directă a cetăţenilor în activitatea instituţiilor europene

<p>Bringing the EU closer to its citizens represents a relatively recent concern included on the European decision-makers’ agenda. In response to criticism regarding the lack of transparency and non-inclusion of the citizens in the decision-making process within the European institutions, one have outlined over time several ways to fill this gap, most of which were contained in the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force in 2009. This article aims to analyze the instruments through which the European citizen directly influences the decision-making process within the European institutions. These were identified especially in the activity of the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Regional Committee, in the increasing of direct involvement of national parliaments in adopting European legislation and also in the European Citizens’ Initiative mechanism.