European Citizens’ Initiative

The 78th citizens’ initiative is now open for signature collection! The ‘Green Garden Roof Tops’ initiative focuses on using existing commercial rooftops as space for green garden areas. Organisers want to see these barren rooftops used for a specific purpose: environmental benefits and increased awareness about reaching a healthy balance between protecting our environment and the economy. Sign your support and share with a friend!

On 7 May, the Cohesion policy for the equality of the regions and sustainability of the regional cultures' citizens’ initiative closed with 1,167,571 reported signatures. Now that the collection period is finalised, organisers will transfer their collected statements of support to the Member State authorities for verification. If the verification process confirms that the signature thresholds have been met, the organisers can submit their initiative for examination to the European Commission. Read more on the steps following the successful collection of support.

The organisers of European citizens’ initiatives are obliged to inform the European Commission of the number of collected statements of support (both online and on paper) at least every two months. This information is then made visible on our website. Congratulations to those organisers whose initiatives reached certain milestones recently, based on their reported signature collection figures. (This information will be updated and shared every month.) At the time of writing, these initiatives had reported the following level of support:

• Over 500,000: Save the bees
• Over 200,000: Stop finning and Right to Cure
• Over 100,000: Start Unconditional Basic Incomes (UBI) throughout the EU
If you’d like to support any of the ongoing initiatives, please visit our website.

On Wednesday 12 May, the General Court of the European Union annulled a decision of the European Commission refusing to register a proposed European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) on ‘Ensuring Common Commercial Policy conformity with EU Treaties and compliance with international law’. The grounds for the annulment were that the refusal was not sufficiently reasoned (Case T-789/19). The Commission will carefully assess the judgement of the General Court and decide on any next steps on that basis. Read the press release: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-05/cp210081en.pdf

The 'Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme' (CERV) provides financial support to civil society organisations active at local, regional and transnational level in promoting and cultivating EU rights and values, thus contributing to building a more democratic EU, democratic dialogue, transparency and good governance. The deadline to apply is 22 June 2021.

Join us online on 3 and 4 June for the 10th ECI Day! Don't miss the opportunity to engage with high-level institutional representatives, civil society organisations, ECI organisers and Europeans willing to get involved with ECIs and learn more about how you can make your voice heard and impact the future of Europe. Discover the full programme of the event and check out the activities organised by ECI Ambassadors in their countries. Register here no later than 31 May.

Do you or someone you know want to learn more about the European Citizens’ Initiative? Come to an upcoming event! On 16 June the European Commission is inviting citizens to discover this unique instrument of participatory democracy – with a focus on Ireland – and on 18 June it will be Luxembourg’s turn. To increase the outreach, citizens from other EU countries can also participate in these events. You will meet engaged citizens, European representatives and stakeholders passionate about participatory democracy. Current and former organisers will give their insights. And you can learn how to bring more attention to a cause you care about! We kicked-off our series of online events with successful events focused on Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Check out the dates of upcoming events on our website.

In this blog post, ECI Ambassador Rafał Dymek draws parallels and lessons from the experience with the civic bills submitted to the national parliament in Poland. He points out advantages and challenges compared to submitting an initiative at EU level. Read the article to discover how the Polish process compares to the European Citizens’ Initiative, and get ideas for how to mobilise more citizen support for Europe-wide initiatives.

Did you miss the ECI step-by-step webinar covering the procedural steps of a European citizens’ initiative? Fear not – you can still watch the recording of the latest ECI Forum webinar! Experts Olga Kurpisz (European Commission) and Hendrik Nahr (ECAS) and organiser Olga Kikou (‘End the Cage Age’ initiative) share their knowledge and experience with you. Check it out on the ECI Forum website.

In this inspiring blog post, Roger Casale (Secretary General, New Europeans) calls for a re-calibration of the EU: from markets to citizens. Read this latest contribution and learn about Mr Casale's concepts of "Europe 1", "Europe 2" and "Europe 3".

What happens to signatures once the collection period is closed and you reached 1 million statements of support? Designated authorities in all EU countries carry out checks to certify the number of statements of support collected. They have 3 months at most to do this, and checks may be based on random sampling. Initiative organisers must submit the signatures via an electronic schema. If you have chosen to use the central system of the European Commission, the Commission will take care of the submission. Check out our extensive FAQ page to learn more about the European Citizens’ Initiative. And hop on over to the ECI Forum – a peer-to-peer space to exchange ideas and help citizens’ initiatives succeed.

Have an opinion to share or a request to make? Head to the European Citizens’ Initiative Forum discussion page to start or join a conversation. Several new discussions were launched in May. For example, one contributor proposes that a European pharmaceutical research institute where pharmaceutical researchers get a decent pay and stable career path should be started. Another Forum user submitted two discussion threads: one to combat ocean pollution by tracking fishing nets, mentioning a pilot project launching in June, and another proposing total income transparency for all politicians across the EU, citing Greece as a good example. What are your views on these ideas? Join the debate or start your own discussion thread!