The webinar recording is available below
Speakers:
Flavio Grazian, Participatory Democracy Manager, ECAS
Attila Dabis, Organiser of ‘Cohesion policy for the equality of regions and sustainability of regional cultures’ initiative
Helmut Burtscher-Schaden, Organiser of 'Save bees and farmers ! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment' initiative
Moderator
Elisa Lironi, Senior Manager European Democracy, ECAS
Language: English
If you missed the webinar, check the video recording (available in English) to learn about the different steps of the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) and how to collect signatures, with inputs provided by two organisers of successful initiatives and experts in the field.
Dr Attila Dabis, is a political scientist and public figure, based in Budapest, Hungary. Since 2012 he has been functioning as the Foreign Affairs Commissioner of the Szekler National Council. Since 2016 he has been the International Coordinator of the Institute for the Protection of Minority Rights. As of 2019 he is co-founder and editor-in-chief of the of the scientific journal, Kisebbségvédelem / Minority Protection. He contributed to this Forum as the deputy (substitute) representative of the European citizens’ initiative called 'Cohesion policy for the equality of the regions and sustainability of the regional cultures'.
Helmut Burtscher-Schaden is a biochemist and has been working on the effects of chemicals on the environment and health for almost two decades at the NGO Global 2000 (Friend of the Earth Austria). He is the author of various publications on the ongoing controversy surrounding the EU approval of glyphosate and its scientific background. This work earned him the election as "Communicator of the Year 2017", a prize awarded annually by the Public Relations Association Austria (PRVA). Burtscher-Schaden was one of the initiators of the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) "Stop Glyphosate" as well as the still ongoing ECI "Save Bees and Farmers".
Flavio Grazian is Participatory Democracy Manager at the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS), where he works on developing and implementing EU projects, with a particular focus on the European Citizens’ Initiative and participatory democracy at EU level. He is the project coordinator of the European Citizens’ Initiative Forum.
Elisa Lironi is the Senior Manager European Democracy, working at the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) since 2015. She develops and leads ECAS’ European Democracy focus area by implementing EU projects and research studies related to Digital Democracy, Civic Participation and Understanding Populism. She has been coordinating several projects from different EU programmes. She is currently leading CODE Europe - a project on crowdsourcing citizens' ideas on air quality (EEA grants), and recently published her latest book chapter 'Crowdsourcing EU Legislation: Harnessing the Power of Digital Democracy' (ECPR Press, 2021). Since 2018, she is the ECI Expert for the European Citizens’ Initiative Forum and part of the team working with Secretariat-General of the European Commission on developing and implementing this online collaborative platform.
Webinar Agenda
1. Introduction and welcoming by Elisa Lironi [minute 1 to 6]
2. Presentation by Flavio Grazian, on the European Citizens' Initiative, its different steps and how to collect signatures [minute 6 to 19]
3. Presentation by Attila Dabis, on the initiative 'Cohesion policy for the equality of the regions and sustainability of the regional cultures' [minute 19 to 22]
4. Presentation by Helmut Burtscher-Schaden, on the initiative 'Save bees and farmers ! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment' [minute 22 to 25]
5. Intervention by Attila Dabis on the different strategies and elements to successfully collect signatures for a citizens’ initiative [minute 25 to 37]
6. Intervention by Helmut Burtscher-Schaden, on his experience and successful factors in collecting signatures for two citizens’ initiatives [minute 37 to 47]
7. Q&A with the audience [minute 47 to 1h.15]
In this webinar, you will find answers to the following questions:
- What is the European Citizens’ Initiative and how can you collect signatures for it?
- What are the different procedural steps of the European Citizens’ Initiative?
- Where can I find more guidance about the European Citizens’ Initiative?
- What are the successful strategies to collect one million signatures?
- What are the main challenges organisers have encountered in collecting signatures and how did they overcome them?
The key takeaways from this webinar are:
- The formal procedure can be divided into 6 stages: 1. getting started 2. registering a European Citizens’ Initiative 3. signature collection stage 4. verification process 5. submitting the initiative 6. replying to the initiative.
- It is important to prepare well in advance before launching an initiative. There will be some ups and downs during the campaign when it comes to signature collection. It is important to have contingency plans in place when this occurs and be persistent throughout the campaign.
- It is important to assess your potential supports ahead of the start of the signature collection phase.
- Having a good network of partners it is of critical importance for collecting signatures in the different Member States. It is important to start building such network before the start of the collection of signatures.
- It is important to try to collect more than one million signatures as there will be some statements of support that will result invalid after the check of the national authorities.
- Tailor-made messages are very effective in reaching potential signatories in the different Member States. It is critical to also identify the best platform to reach your target audiences.
- The last days of the campaign are always the most crucial for the collection of signatures and you should increase your efforts during those days.