European citizens can, as from April 1, collect a million signatures and call upon the European Commission to propose or change European legislation.

This information was given in a conference on the Lisbon Treaty this evening, organised by the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development and the Malta European Economic and Social Committee.

While some citizens already enjoyed similar rights in their country, this right was now being extended to a transnational scale.

Signatories had to be of voting age and from one of the 27 member states.

Justice Minister Chris Said said this was a major step forward as the EU was the 500 million people who formed it.

He said that at times, during the financial crisis, there were people who felt cut off from the decisions taken but in the past months one could see solidarity among states for the economy to recover.

Through this initiative, the minister said, the people would be able to unite to help each other.