Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration, participated in the "European Citizens' Initiative: time to act!" conference jointly organised by the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). Mercedes Bresso, President of the CoR, Staffan Nilsson, President of the EESC, and Georgios Papastamkos, Member of the EP, also attended the event.
The launch of European Citizens' Initiatives was held two days after. From that day, a million citizens from across Europe could come together on an issue that was important to them, and ask the EC to do something about it.
The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) was introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. It would allow 1 million citizens from at least one quarter of EU Member States to invite the EC to bring forward proposals for legal acts in areas where the Commission had the power to do so. The Regulation governing European Citizens' Initiatives was adopted on 16/02/2011. However, at the request of Member States who needed time to put mechanisms in place for certifying statements of support, citizens could only launch ECIs from 01/04/2012.