European Citizens' Initiative
This popular initiative enables one million citizens of the European Union,[2] with a minimum number of nationals from at least seven member states, to call directly on the European Commission to propose a legal act (notably a Directive or Regulation) in an area where the member states have conferred powers onto the EU level.
Thanks to the campaign work of activists and Convention members the ECI was introduced in a last-minute act into the Constitutional Treaty.
After it produced several drafts and opinions that were discussed in the Constitutional Affairs and Petitions Committees, the European Parliament, on 15 December 2010, finally voted on the ECI Regulation.
The country has several tools of direct democracy such as the federal popular initiative (since 1848) and the optional referendum (since 1874).
[6] The practical arrangements, conditions and procedure of the ECI are determined in the Regulation 2019/788 on the European citizens' initiative, which has been applicable since 1 January 2020.
[7] Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2019/1779 lays down technical specifications for the ECI's online collection systems.
Greenpeace collected one million signatures in December 2010 for a petition, hosted by Avaaz, against the authorisation of new GM crops in Europe.
The European Commission chose the symbolic date of 9 May 2012 (Europe Day) to officially launch the first ECI.
The initiative was submitted to the commission in December 2013 and its public hearing at the European Parliament took place on 17 February 2014.
In December 2020, the European Parliament and the Council adopted the revised Directive, which entered into force in January 2021.
The initiative sought that the EU "establish a ban and end the financing of activities which presuppose the destruction of human embryos, in particular in the areas of research, development aid and public health.
On 3 March 2015, the third European Citizens' Initiative to gather the required number of signatories, Stop Vivisection, was submitted to the commission.
The commission adopted a communication on 12 December 2017, setting out the actions it intends to take in response to the initiative.
[19] On 11 April 2018, the commission adopted a proposal for a Regulation on transparency and sustainability of the EU risk assessment in the food chain.
Over the course of one year, many scientists, companies and more than 170 NGOs supported the ECI, aiming at a phase out of caged farming in the European Union.
They succeeded in collecting almost 1.4 million signatures, by emphasising the need for a prohibition of cages for farmed rabbits, pullets, broiler breeders, quail, ducks and geese.
[24] In response to this initiative, the Commission committed to propose legislation to phase out, and finally prohibit, the use of cage systems for the animals mentioned in the ECI by the end of 2023.
These include legal constraints (such as liability issues over data protection and insufficient advice regarding the appropriate legal basis of ECIs), technical issues (the online collection system is not user-friendly and does not let campaigners access email addresses of signatories to keep them informed), and bureaucratic hurdles (each member state has different data requirements and signature forms).
The Centre recommends the EU Commission to develop an ECI-App, which should enable mobile signing and can help raise public awareness of the ECI.
The analysis was conducted at the request of the AFCO and PETI Committees, and tried to identify difficulties faced by organisers when setting up and running an ECI.
During the conference the findings and recommendations of a study undertaken by ECAS and the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer on the legal basis of the refused ECIs were presented and discussed.
[59] The overall conclusions of the study are that the legal admissibility requirements are applied in a too narrow fashion by the commission, that decisions to refuse registration were arbitrary and that reasons given for rejection were often incomplete.
[60] Speaking at the hearing, Frans Timmermans, First Vice-president of the European Commission, stated that the ECI has not worked well enough and took personal responsibility to improve it so that it would not disappear.
Emily O'Reilly explained in her statement: "The Commission has done a lot to give effect to the ECI right in a citizen-friendly way.
[63] On 31 March 2015, the commission adopted the Report on the application of Regulation (EU) No 211/2011 on the citizens' initiative, which constitutes an important element of potential ECI reform.
[64] On 13 April 2015, third edition of the "ECI Day" took place in the European Economic and Social Committee.
In consequence, after 2 months of in-depth analysis over 20 members of the AFCO committee came up with 127 amendments to the draft report.
By gathering a certain number of signatures, citizens can demand a binding vote on a proposed policy or legislation.
