5. European Citizens' Initiative

The Lisbon Treaty introduced the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) which allows citizens to submit legislative proposals to the European Commission on matters falling within the competence of the EU. A legislative initiative must be supported by at least one million European citizens, and each group of organisers must be composed of at least 7 EU citizens residing in 7 different European countries.

The EP has taken steps to facilitate the operating procedures of this participatory democracy tool and undertakes to hold hearings on the initiatives that have collected the requested signatures.

The European Parliamentary Research Service has submitted a summary on the state of implementation of the ECI, with the description of the problems related to its implementation followed by some suggestions for improving it.

Read the brief notes published by the European Parliament and discover the different stages that make up the Citizens' Initiative.

Watch the video on how the ECI works:


If you are wondering whether these initiatives have a real influence, discover “Right2Water”, the first ECI to become law in December 2020.

Food for thought

Did you already know the tool described here? Is there anything that has caught your attention so far? Would you use any of these tools in your advocacy strategy?