Petitions

In principle, all residents of the municipality have the right to submit a petition to the City of Innsbruck. Any person who has their main residence in Innsbruck or owns a property or business in the city area is considered a municipal resident.
A "qualified" petition, which is treated as a motion by a member of the Municipal council in the Municipal council, must currently be signed by at least 1,258 persons entitled to vote for the Municipal council.

You can submit a petition in writing

• by post to the Service Unit Municipal council and city senate ,
• by e-mail to post.gemeinderat-stadtsenat@innsbruck.gv.at
• or via the municipal online form.

The petition must be designated as such and must contain the first name, surname and address of the person submitting the petition or an authorised person representing the petitioner(s). An e-mail address and telephone number are requested.

The following signature list must be used to sign a "qualified" petition, which is treated as a request from a member of the Municipal council.

The request should be clearly formulated and suggestions for improvement should be explained as precisely as possible. These questions can help:

• What is the problem? What is your concern?
• What could a solution look like?
• What measures should be taken?
• Contact details (first name and surname, addressdresse) of the person submitting the request and optional e-mail addressdresse and telephone number

The subject of a "simple" petition must fall within the City of Innsbruck's own sphere of influence. This means that the city must be responsible for its own sphere of action (e.g. local security police, local event police, local building police and local spatial planning).

However, not all matters within the city's own sphere of influence can be the subject of a "qualified" petition, which is dealt with in the Municipal council in the same way as a motion by a member of the Municipal council. Excluded from this are elections to municipal bodies, the appointment of municipal employees and the termination of their employment and other personnel matters, tax matters and the setting of charges (tariffs) for the use of the city's public facilities or its commercial enterprises, expressions of intent by the municipality as the holder of private rights, on the basis of which someone has acquired a right, or official decisions or orders.

Once the petition has been received, it is checked whether all legal requirements have been met. If the examination is positive, the petition is either

• only kept available for inspection by the members of the municipal council (simple petition) OR
• in the case of a "qualified" petition, if sufficient signatures have been collected (currently 1258) and the other requirements are met, the petition is treated as a request by a member of the Municipal council and the authorised person representing the petitioner is granted the right to speak.

In principle, all members of the municipal council are free to submit a motion relating to the content of the petition. The members of the Municipal council are notified of the receipt of a petition by email and the mayor also announces the content of the petition at the following Municipal council meeting.

• the keeping of civil status registers and citizenship records
• participation in the census
• issuing certificates of citizenship
• issuing birth, marriage and death certificates
• the registry office
• police registration
• the housing office
• drawing up electoral registers, voting and registration lists
• participation in the organization of National Council, federal presidential and provincial elections, referendums and petitions for referendums
• participation in the administration of taxes
• any activity as a district administrative authority, e.g. in the areas of trade law, water law, road traffic regulations, waste management law, etc.

The number of signatures required is determined by the number of voters. Currently, at least 1,258 people eligible to vote for the municipal council must sign the petition. If there are people on the signature list who do not meet the required eligibility criteria, they will not be counted. The day on which the petition is received by the citymagistrat is also the deadline for checking eligibility to vote. If this threshold is not reached, the petition will be made available for inspection by the members of the municipal council after verification if the requirements for the "simple" petition are met.

The signing of "qualified" petitions, which are treated as a motion by a member of the Municipal councilin the Municipal council, must be done on a special signature list containing specific information such as surnames, first names, dates of birth and addresses. The following list must be used for the collection. Digital declarations of support via a digital platform on the Internet, such as Open Petition, are not recognized for a "qualified petition".

The person submitting the petition or the authorised person representing the petitioner will be informed in writing whether the petition received meets the legal requirements.

If the petition fulfils the criteria for being treated as a motion by a member of the Municipal council in the Municipal council, i.e. a "qualified" petition, the Municipal council meeting can be followed in the municipal livestream or the public Municipal council meeting can be attended. Minutes are also taken of every municipal council meeting. These can be found here. In the case of a "qualified" petition that fulfils the criteria for being dealt with as a motion by a member of the Municipal council, the authorised person representing the petitioner will be informed in writing about the processing of the petition.

The legal basis for the petition is § 49 of the Innsbruck municipal law. Further provisions on the right to speak and the handling of a "qualified" petition, which is treated as a motion by a member of the municipal council in the municipal council, can be found in the rules of procedure of the municipal council of the City of Innsbruck, its committees and the City Senate of the City of Innsbruck in § 20a. The election number is determined in accordance with § 73 Para. 2 of the Innsbruck Electoral Regulations.