EU grapples with citizens initiative

BRUSSELS, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A citizens initiative contained in the new Lisbon Treaty will raise both political and legal problems for the European Union, a discussion paper says.

The paper, published Wednesday, lays out the difficulties of allowing EU citizens to propose legislation through an initiative requiring 1 million signatures, the EUobserver reports.

Chief among the problems the paper addresses is setting the minimum number of states the signatures must come from, what proportion of the population the signatures should represent in each country and how the signatures should be collected.

Another problem involves verification of signatures.

The paper also discusses setting a time period of one year for gathering signatures.

Brussels hopes to have the new citizens initiative, which will "add a new dimension to European democracy" up and running by the end of the year, the EUobserver says.