I am in the petitions committee now, and there is a heated debate on landlaw in Valencia- a raft of petitions concerning irregularities in urban planning laws and the loss of property. It is hard to follow the debate as only the MEPs are given the full documents of information, but it is interesting to see the varying opinion on the committee, and evidence given by the petitioners.
The two Welsh petitions were discussed in the morning's session, and both remain open so as to allow the Commission to collate more evidence on the alleged breaches of EU Directives. They will be discussed again in the near future. The fact that they remain open is positive for those involved in both campaigns.
We are launching our own e-petitions system this month aslo, and this should allow for more people to put petitions forward to the Assembly, and for discussion to take place on web forums.
What we can take from this experience is that the EU committee takes part in regular fact finding missions in relation to varying petitions. This ranges from committee members visiting the area of the petitioners concern, their homes, or public meetings. They will then compile a report for other members of the committee, and draw a conclusion from that. This seems a great way of bringing politics closer to the people, and could be a key way of encouraging our AMs to take a much more hands on approach to local concerns.
I'm not sure how long this meeting has to go, but there are many petitions yet to be heard!
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