This afternoon the European Economic and Social Committee’s thirty-nine member Bureau discussed the Citizens’ Initiative. If the sheer quantity of comment about it is any indication, then the initiative is one of the most significant democratic innovations of the Lisbon Treaty. Yet, as several speakers in the discussion pointed out citizens, who will have to wait a while yet, could get a bit disillusioned. The European Commission had hoped that this right could be a reality already on 1 December 2010, exactly one year after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty itself. But the Treaty foresaw an implementing regulation which, following intricate negotiations, was finally adopted by the Council only yesterday. And actual entry into force will take another month. Beyond that, however, the EU’s citizens will have to wait another year because the Member States have requested twelve months in order to implement the legislation at national level…