The European Citizens’ Initiative marks its 15th anniversary this year, offering EU citizens a formal route to ask the European Commission to propose new laws.
The initiative allows citizens to launch a petition-style proposal on an issue that falls within the EU’s competences, meaning areas where the EU has legal authority to act, the Commission said on Monday.
To start an initiative, organisers must form a group of at least seven EU citizens who live in at least seven different EU countries, then submit a registration request to the Commission.
The Commission checks whether a proposed initiative is within its powers before it can be registered.
Once registered, organisers have one year to collect one million signatures of support from across the EU, and if that threshold is met the Commission will respond formally within six months.
More than 20 million signatures collected since 2011
Since the European Citizens’ Initiative began in 2011, more than 1,000 people have launched more than 120 initiatives and more than 20 million signatures have been collected online or on paper, the Commission informed.
Past citizen-led initiatives have included campaigns to save bees, provide clean drinking water and end the trade in shark fins, which the organisation said led to concrete EU laws.
Further information on the process is available through the European Citizens’ Initiative website and its online forum, which offers legal and practical advice.
