The admissibility phase remains the sensitive point of negotiations on practical arrangements for the citizens’ initiative. The European Commission’s draft regulation establishes a two-phase procedure, with a first check upon initial registration of the project followed by a final decision once 300,000 signatures have been collected. The Council convinced the Commission to reduce this threshold to 100,000 signatures to avoid “frustrating” organisers in case of rejection. The European Parliament wishes to go further, cutting the figure down to 5,000 signatures. That at least is the position of the rapporteur for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO), Zita Gurmai (S&D, Hungary). Her counterpart for the Committee on Petitions (PETI), Diana Wallis (ALDE, UK), is calling for abandonment of this second phase and the use of a single control upon registration. The Commission does not plan to give up the second phase, however, because it is intent on keeping safety nets in place. So the negotiation is expected to focus on the number of signatures required for a decision of admissibility. In exchange, the EP could try to push for the one million signatures having to come from only one fourth of the member states rather than one third, although there is no unanimity in its ranks on this issue.