European Citizens’ Initiative

Dear readers,

This newsletter has a new feature – automatic machine translation into 23 EU languages! Want to switch languages? Click here to select the language of your choice at the top of the page. Make sure to look for the icon similar to the picture here.

Thanks for keeping in mind this is machine-generated and a few technical bugs are still being worked out!

Organisers of the ‘Fur Free Europe’ initiative launched their signature collection period on 18 May. They now have 1 year to collect 1 million signatures.

This initiative asks the Commission to prohibit the keeping and killing of animals for fur production and to stop products containing farmed animal fur from entering the EU market.

Read more about the organisers’ objectives by clicking ‘more’.

Two citizens’ initiatives will close their signature collection period in June: ‘Voters without Borders, Full Political Rights for EU Citizens’ and ‘Start Unconditional Basic Incomes (UBI) throughout the EU’. If you’d like to learn more about these initiatives, listen to CitizenCentral podcast episodes 2 and 4 or visit their pages to read more.

Fear not if you missed the webinar “Discover the European Citizens’ Initiative” on Tuesday, 3 May.

We had a nice turnout of people from across Europe. Speakers Silvia Kersemakers (European Commission) and Elisa Lironi (European Citizen Action Service) gave an overview of the rights the ECI offers, and the assistance provided by the ECI Forum. Initiative organisers Marina Konstantinidi (ReturnthePlastics), Michele Gianella (Start UBI throughout the EU), Elsa Kraemer (European EcoScore) and Olga Kikou (End the Cage Age) spoke about their respective ambitions and experiences.

The event was recorded as part of the European Commission Open Days online. Watch the recording and view the presentation slides by clicking ‘more’ below.

The European Citizens’ Initiative helped welcome visitors to the European Commission’s Open Day on 7 May. Visitors could take a short quiz on the ECI (currently available in EN/FR/DE/NL, with more languages coming soon), look at ongoing initiatives on the homepage and ask questions to the Commissions’ team working on the ECI.

Listen to a short interview by one colleague made at the Open Day (in French).

The Commission’s headquarters was visited by over 8,000 people. In addition to learning about the EU in general (and the ECI in particular!), participants had the opportunity to interact with ‘Youth,’ ‘Green’ and ‘Digital’ thematic areas, test their knowledge with quizzes, watch live music and dance performances, and more.

Click ‘more’ to take the quiz yourself!

Participants are gathering for the 10th Anniversary of EDI day, hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee on 2 June. The event will be opened by EESC president Christa Schweng, and Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography.

This is a hybrid event. For those who are unable to attend in person, you can watch an online livestream starting at 9:30 CET, or follow updates on the ECI Forum’s social media channels. Tune in throughout the day to follow along!

We are conducting a survey on the ECI podcast CitizenCentral. With 7 episodes released in season 1 and production for season 2 kicking off, we’d like to take this opportunity to hear from you. This survey takes approximately 8-10 minutes and closes on 23 June. Click ‘more’ to contribute!

You can catch up on season 1 of CitizenCentral on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud.

Karl-Hendrik joined the ECI Ambassador programme in early 2022. He had the idea to develop a subpage about the ECI that complements his organisation’s existing website focused on participatory democracy at local and national levels in Estonia. Rahvaalgatus.ee (‘The Citizens Initiative Portal’) enables citizens to write proposals, hold discussions and send petitions to the Estonian Parliament and local government. In Estonia, if a proposal gets 1,000 signatures, the Parliament must take it into consideration. “Our mission is to popularise this tool in Estonia as a way to start a constructive dialogue between citizens and politicians. In this sense the ECI has a very similar message and is a tool to help people participate directly in the political process.”

“We have noted that there are a lot of similar initiatives at the Estonian level and the EU level. Using Europe Day as a hook, we published different trivia and facts about the ECI on social media and in our newsletter. Country-specific details and statistics are the best hook to talk about the ECI, so the more access we have to statistics, the better.”

Karl-Hendrik enjoys being an ECI Ambassador because: “I like to be able to contribute to wider use of this tool as I see real value in a truly working participatory democracy. It is something that can make Brussels feel closer than it normally does and make people more interested in EU politics.”

Meet your ECI Ambassadors by clicking more below.

Calling all civil society organisations: we want to know your experience and perspective regarding the European Citizens’ Initiative! How do you choose to support, or not support, an initiative? Let us know by taking part in this short survey, deadline: 31 July.

Check out the latest data and figures on European citizens’ initiatives in the updated ECI infographic. Learn about the demographics of ECI organisers (age and nationality), the number of signatures per country, the amount of funding successful initiatives received... and more!

Click ‘more’ to access the figures!

Interested in learning how to develop a successful European Citizens’ Initiative?

Check out the newly updated online course: ‘Essential Skills for European Citizens' Initiative Organisers'.

The course provides participants with an opportunity to learn about the process and practice of developing European citizens’ initiatives in an interactive online environment, under the guidance of established experts.

Successful participants will receive a Certificate upon completion of the course.

The ECI Forum continues to directly engage with young people – in May with students at the University of Latvia. The ECI Forum discussed the potential of participatory democracy in Europe generally, and the ECI as a tool more specifically. The next exchange is with students from the University of Wroclaw (Poland).

Would you like us to make a presentation at your university and exchange with you and other students? Contact the ECI Forum via eciforum@ecas.org

Interested in knowing what EU citizens are discussing about? Join the ECI Forum and check the latest discussion threads covering topics such as the role of parliament in the digital age, migration and discrimination, unity within Europe and social policy.

Discuss with your fellow citizens by clicking more below.

When you give your support for a European citizens’ initiative online, you need to fill in specific details. For many people, there are two options: you can either fill in your details manually, or you can connect through your national eID system to have the data automatically filled in.

Currently 13 Member States offer the possibility of using the eID system active nationally (for example ‘Itsme’ in Belgium and ‘CIE’ or ‘SPID’ in Italy). Completing the form automatically with eID not only saves you time, but it ensures that data is correct – reducing the possibility of human error. This is important when the 1 million+ signatures collected are verified by the national authorities before organisers can officially submit the initiative.

Learn more below.