Who determines the title of an initiative?

Legislative Initiative by Citizens (Law no. 17/2003 of 4 June 2003, last amended by Law no. 52/2017 of 13 July 2017)

Article 6. Requisites

1 ‐ The right of citizens to initiate legislation is exercised by means of the submission to the Assembly of the Republic of Member’s bills subscribed by at least twenty thousand registered electors.

2 ‐ The Member’s bills referred to in the previous paragraph shall be submitted to the President of the Assembly of the Republic in writing, on paper or by electronic means, shall be drawn up in the form of articles and must contain:

a) A name that briefly describes their main object;

b) A justification or explanatory statement, to include a summary description of the initiative, the legislative acts that are to be amended or are related to the initiative, the main consequences of its implementation and the grounds for it, especially the respective social, economic, financial and political reasons;

c) The identity details of all the proposers, on paper or by electronic means, depending on the format in which they are submitted, to comprise the full name, identity card or citizen’s card number, electoral number and date of birth of each subscribing citizen;

d) The identity details of the members who make up the committee representing the subscribing citizens, together with details of a domicile for the committee;

e) A list of the attached documents.

Article 8: Admission

1 ‐ The President of the Assembly of the Republic shall admit the initiative, save if:

a) It addresses matters that are not included in its object, as defined in accordance with the law;

b) It does not respect the limits laid down in Article 4;

c) It does not fulfil the requisites provided for in Article 6(1) and (2).

Legal Regime governing Referenda (Law no. 15-A/98 of 3 April 1998, last amended by Organic Law no. 3/2017 of 18 July 2017)

Article 16: Holders of the right

Referenda may result from initiatives that are addressed to the Assembly of the Republic by Portuguese electors who number at least sixty thousand and are properly registered on the electoral roll in Portuguese territory, as well as by citizens referred to in Article 37(2) with regard to the matters provided for therein.

Article 17: Form

1 – Popular initiatives shall be submitted in writing, on paper or by electronic means, shall be addressed to the Assembly of the Republic, and shall contain the signatories’ identity details, to comprise the full name, identity card or citizen’s card number, electoral number and date of birth of each one.

2 – The Assembly of the Republic shall provide an electronic platform that makes it possible to submit popular initiatives and to receive the items referred to in the previous paragraph. […]

Article 20: Procedural details

1 – Within a time limit of two days, the President of the Assembly of the Republic shall ask the committee with competence for the matter in question for an opinion on the referendum initiative, to be provided within the time limit he sets it.

2 – Once he has received the committee’s opinion, the President of the Assembly of the Republic shall either decide to admit the initiative or have the group of citizens’ representative notified that the text must be perfected within a time limit of at most twenty days.

3 – The parliamentary groups and the agents of the group of citizens who submitted the initiative shall be notified of the President of the Assembly of the Republic’s order.

4 – Once it has been admitted, the initiative shall be referred to the committee with competence for the matter in question.

5 – The committee shall hear the representative of the group of registered electors, in order to obtain the clarifications deemed necessary to an understanding of the questions that have been submitted and any reformulation thereof.

6 – Within a time limit of twenty days, the committee shall draw up a draft Member’s resolution incorporating the text of the referendum initiative and send it to the President of the Assembly of the Republic for scheduling.

7 – The President of the Assembly of the Republic must schedule the draft Member’s resolution for one of the next ten plenary sittings.

8 – The popular initiative shall obligatorily be considered and put to the vote by the Plenary.

The proponents of both types of initiatives are responsible for the initial wording of the title of the initiative. However,  they may be asked to revise it if the President of the Assembly rejects the initiative or requests changes in the text.