The finnish delegation explained about the petitions and citizens initiatives back home. Most interesting it was to hear that the famous authentication of signatories by banks is in fact costly. The NGO running the petitioning website would have to pay thousands of euros to the banks for a petition with many signatures.
Also, in the second round of this session, in a one on one talk, we came up with a research proposal to find out the different 'weight' of petitions. Signatories sign anonymously or not, make donations or pledges and so on. All indicators of 'weight'. Now relate that to the topics the petition is about and the direction of the petition (proposing or blocking policy).