The Commission has unveiled its latest report on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), marking the first comprehensive review since the new regulation came into effect in 2020. In the report, the Commission refers to the dedicated survey with ECI organisers that gives an overall positive assessment regarding the advice provided by the ECI Forum at different stages of the ECI process, including during the two-stage registration procedure (when they need to revise their initial submission) and during the collection phase. ECI organisers have extensively used the Forum's learning materials before registration and rate highly the webinars, blogs, online courses and the ability to search for other members for their group.
The Commission’s review report to the European Parliament and the Council, published in December 2023, sets the tone for the next four years until the next assessment. Prior to this, in June 2023, the Parliament released own resolution, proposing forward-thinking ideas to enhance the ECI's efficacy.
The Parliament's suggestions included connecting ECIs with European Citizens' Panels, where the issues raised by successful ECIs would become the topics of the Commission's European Citizens' Panels (the participatory offspring of the Conference on the Future of Europe). Next, it suggested a progressive financial scheme for ECIs, tackling the issue many ECIs face of low resources that affect campaigning. The Parliament called for financial support for ECIs that reach thresholds under 1 million signatures, not just those that reach the million milestone. Additionally, it encouraged Member States to lower the age to sign an ECI - where, thanks to the new regulation, Member States may now choose to lower the age to sign an ECI. Still, only a handful have used this opportunity, as mentioned above. Lastly, the Parliament commits to increase its role in the ECI by voting on a parliamentary resolution after every successful ECI, followed by a legislative own-initiative report. This is a natural next step in scaling up the Parliament's ECI role and having the Parliamentarians respond directly to issues raised by citizens.
The Commission then presented its position on the Parliament’s resolution in its reply to the resolution, as well as referred to some of the points made in this resolution in its review report.
The Commission's review report showcases the strides made since 2020 and introduces practical measures to refine the ECI further. To gauge the ECI's effectiveness under the revised regulation, the Commission consulted with ECI organisers, Member State authorities, civil society organisations, ECI website and Forum users, signatories, and other stakeholders.
Following these consultations, substantial technical advancements were highlighted, including the central online collection system, file exchange service, an upgraded ECI Forum, and a revamped ECI website. Notably, six Member States (Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Malta, and Austria) have lowered the ECI signing age below 18, with Finland and Ireland considering following suit.
Learn more about the new Central Online Collection System
In assessing the ECI's usage, the Commission notes that Italian citizens lead in organising ECIs, followed by Germans and French. Since 2020, the Commission has registered all but one ECI requests, potentially due to the revamped ECI Forum offering legal advice before registration request and the two-stage procedure enabling organisers to revise initiatives.
The past three years saw a record-breaking five ECIs gather over 1 million signatures! Over 9 million signatures have been collected since 2020, primarily online, due to the reduced in-person activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Commission also published five actions it plans to further improve the ECI , based on the consultations with stakeholders, and the ECI's accomplishments and challenges over the last three years.
Firstly, the Commission will enhance ECI awareness and visibility by actively seeking the involvement of the European Parliament and Member States through the national contact points as well as welcoming the contribution from regional and local authorities, other EU institutions, educational institutions, and civil society organisations. Several actions have been taken in this regard, including ECI communication campaign activities, and the Commission will continue to streamline the multilingual campaign, especially on social media and prioritising young people.
Next, the Commission will strengthen support for ECI organisers, for example, by further enhancing in-kind support to organisers. A continued improvement of the central online collection system is also planned, as the individual online collection system has been phased out, in line with the new regulation. In this regard, the Commission will further develop the system based on feedback and suggestions, and it will consider other improvements, such as adding further options to customise the system to make it more campaigner-friendly and attractive to organisers and signatories alike.
Furthermore, the Commission will strengthen ECI implementation at the national level and improve cooperation with civil society by identifying further training and guidance needs for ECI organisers and increasing ECI awareness and visibility.
Lastly, the Commission will implement a more visible follow-up of ECIs. It will do this by ensuring that successful ECIs are taken into account systematically when developing policy proposals in response to these ECIs and that organisers are consistently included in consultations related to the proposals concerned.
The Commission review report and the EP resolution pave the way for the future of this pioneering tool of transnational participatory democracy. At just 11 years old, the ECI is still in its adolescent state, yet it still manages to allow citizens to level up their concerns and ideas. In the next decade of the ECI's life, it would be interesting to see how the ECI continues to improve and transform into a more impactful and responsive instrument for democratic participation, empowering European citizens to actively shape their shared future.
Learn more from six of the nine successful ECIs that have collected over 1 million signatures and have been submitted to the Commission for examination since 1 January 2020:
How to collect signatures from the organiser of End the Cage Age
The success of Save the Bees and Farmers
Anatomy of a miracle: how the last 20 days of the Stop Finning EU campaign became a gamechanger
Why Save Cruelty-Free Cosmetics chose to use the European Citizens’ Initiative
Contributors
Daniela VancicDaniela Vancic is the European Program Manager at Democracy International. She leads the Forum's work on stakeholder consultations. In this article, she presents the highlights of the Report from the European Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of Regulation (EU) 2019/788 on the European citizens’ initiative.
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