Student: Micha Rybacki

Course: Democratic Participation and Representation of Citizens in the EU

Lecturer: prof. Magdalena Musia-Karg
University: Adam Mickiewicz University in Pozna
Academic year: 2014/2015, summer semester

Assignment no. 4
European Citizens Initiative
The European Citizens Initiative (ECI) is a mechanism introduced by the Treaty of
Lisbon which provides European Union citizens with the opportunity to put forward a
proposal for legislation at the EU level. In order to do so, organisers of an initiative are
required to establish a citizens committee that will collect one million traditional and
online signatures of support for their idea from at least 7 out of 28 member-states
within the period of one year. They can address areas where the EU has competence to
act. Once this is successfully done, the initiators meet a representative of the
Commission and are allowed to present their proposal at a public hearing in the
European Parliament. Afterwards the Commission may either accept or reject the
initiative, while in the former case it is forwarded to be decided upon by the Parliament
and the Council under the ordinary legislative procedure. Eventually, after having been
adopted by these bodies it may become an EU law binding for the member-states. The
mechanism started to be used in May 2012.
The ECI can be considered as a way of lowering the EU democratic deficit by
giving ordinary citizens the right to come up with their proposals and potentially affect
the Communitys legislation which can in turn impact legal regulations of the memberstates. The procedure itself appears to be relatively simple and accessible to people,
while the requirements concerning the signature collection are demanding yet realistic
which is proved by some initiatives having been successfully submitted to the
Commission so far. Therefore, it may be an effective tool in the hands of social
movements able to mobilise support from large parts of the society for bottom-up
initiatives. Additionally, it has a significant integrative potential as it may foster the

cooperation of EU citizens beyond national borders in order to achieve certain shared

goals. Thus, it may strengthen the notion of common European identity and citizenship.
On the other hand, the ECI has some limitations. Primarily, the European
Commission is not obliged to accept a proposal and submit it as a legislative initiative
even if all formal requirements has been met, including the support of one millio n EU
citizens. Consequently, a tool which seems to be genuinely democratic is actually
dependent on a decision of the Commission which consists of EU officials lacking a
democratic mandate, before an initiative reaches bodies of a more representative
character. As a result some may argue that it is mainly a PR-oriented tool the usage of
which can be safely curbed if a given proposal is inconvenient to some Eurocrats. For
this reason the overcoming of the democratic deficit through this solution may be seen
as only illusionary.
Nonetheless, the European Citizens Initiative is a considerable step towards a
more democratic European Union, which can be reformed and improved in the future
the same way as the Parliament has been made more representative and powerful over
time as the process of European integration progressed. Therefore, the ECI should be
widely used by citizens in order to show the European leaders that there is a demand
for direct democratic procedures within the EU.