General aspects
A European citizens’ initiative is a way for you and other EU citizens to take an active part in EU policy-making.
If you want to ask the EU to take action on a particular issue, you can create a citizens’ initiative, to call on the European Commission to propose new EU legislation on that issue.
For an initiative to be considered by the Commission, you need at least 1 million people from across the EU to sign it.
Petitions to the European Parliament differ from citizens’ initiatives mainly in that:
- they relate to existing EU activities; they cannot request proposals for new EU laws (citizens’ initiatives propose new EU laws)
- they can be submitted by a single petitioner (citizens’ initiatives have formal groups of organisers)
- there is no minimum number of signatures (citizens’ initiatives need at least1 million signatures).
Citizens’ initiatives are submitted to the European Commission, inviting it to submit a proposal for a legal act of the Union for the purpose of implementing the Treaties.
YES.
Initiatives and similar tools exist either at national, regional or local level in most countries. They differ in scope and procedure.
You can find examples in this study:
Getting started – the initiative
YES.
You can get independent advice on legal aspects of an ECI, as well as on campaigning, fundraising and other organisational aspects, from the European Citizens' Initiative Forum. Each question submitted for advice on the ECI Forum is answered by an expert.
Please note that you must be a registered user of the Forum in order to ask for advice. See more information on registering on the ECI Forum.
The ECI Forum also provides guidance materials to assist you at every stage of starting and running an ECI. For further details, see the ‘Practical guidance’ section of the ECI Forum.
NO.
A citizens’ initiative can only concern proposals on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required to implement the Treaties (and therefore not modify them).
YES.
There are no restrictions on this in the rules. Each initiative is assessed individually and can be registered if it meets the registration requirements.
Getting started – the organisers
YES.
What counts is their country of residence. Organisers can have the same or different EU nationalities as long as they are resident in at least 7 different EU countries.
NO.
You must be a national of an EU country.
You must be old enough to vote in European Parliament elections.
In most EU countries this means 18 years old – except:
- Belgium, Germany, Malta and Austria, where the voting age is 16.
- Greece, where the voting age is 17.
NO.
You only need to be old enough to vote in European elections (see previous question).
The representative and the substitute speak and act on behalf of the group of organisers.
They liaise between the group and the Commission, in particular by managing all submissions to the Commission.
They both have access to the organiser account and receive all correspondence from the Commission.
The contact persons – the representative and their substitute – are authorised to speak and act on behalf of organisers.
They can be among the 7 group members living in 7 different countries or be 2 different members of the group.
They liaise between the group and the Commission, in particular by managing all submissions to the Commission.
They both have access to the organiser account and receive all correspondence from the Commission.
When submitting a request for registration, the representative of the group of organisers needs to upload documents with the full names, postal addresses and nationalities of the 7 group members living in 7 different EU countries.
The same documents are required for the contact persons (representative and substitute), if they are not among these 7 members.
The Commission will check these documents and may require the representative to provide further information.
Important: an identity document might not be sufficient proof of the country of residence. The supporting documents proving the country of residence should be as recent as possible and preferably not more than one year old (e.g. utility bills indicating the current place of residence).
For more information see the guidance on the ECI Forum.
YES.
If you do so, you (the representative or the substitute) must use your organiser account to inform the Commission of the changes.
When the changes affect the minimum number of group members living in 7 different EU countries, you must provide the necessary documents showing that your group still complies with the requirements in terms of nationality, age and residence.
When the changes refer to the representative and/or the substitute, the statement of support forms are updated to reflect these changes. If you are using paper forms, you will need to print new ones from your organiser account.
The names of the new group members will appear in the online register. The names of the former representative and/or substitute will remain visible in the register throughout the procedure (this is so that the relevant authorities can check the validity of the signatures collected and submitted for verification).
YES.
There are no restrictions on this in the rules.
NO.
This is just an option.
If you do set one up, the entity is legally in charge of managing the initiative.
YES.
Any legal entity that manages an initiative must be set up according to the national law of the country where it is registered. Documents need to be provided to prove that it has been registered specifically for the purpose of managing the initiative and that the representative is authorised to act on its behalf.
Getting the initiative registered
- the title of the initiative (max. 100 characters without spaces)
- the objectives of the initiative (max. 1,100 characters without spaces)
- the Treaty articles that you as organisers consider relevant for the proposed initiative
- the full names, postal addresses, nationalities and dates of birth of 7 group members living in 7 different EU countries
- additionally, for the representative and substitute, their email addresses and telephone numbers
- The representative and substitute can be among the 7 group members mentioned above (living in 7 different EU countries) or can be other group members.
- documents that prove the full names, current postal addresses, nationalities and dates of birth of each of the 7 group members and of the representative and substitute, if they are not among those 7 group members (see also the FAQ ‘As an organiser, how do I prove that I comply with the requirements set out in the rules’)
- the names of other members of the group
- all sources of funding and support (known at the time of registration) above EUR 500 per sponsor
- if relevant, documents proving that (i) a legal entity was formed to manage the initiative and (ii) that the group representative is authorised to act on behalf of this entity.
- You can also provide:
- an annex giving more background details about the initiative (max. 5,000 characters without spaces), to be filled in online
- additional information, for example a draft legal act (to be uploaded – max. 5 MB)
- the address of the website hosting your initiative (if any).
- Note: after submitting the registration request no changes can be made to the title, objectives, annex or additional information of your initiative.
- For more information on preparing an initiative for registration see the guidance on the ECI Forum.
- For videos from experts and recordings of relevant webinars, see: Practical guidance | European Citizens´ Initiative Forum (europa.eu)
The Commission will register your initiative if:
- the group of organisers has been formed and the contact persons named
- the supporting documents proving full names, current postal addresses (residence) and nationalities of the 7 group members living in 7 different EU countries have been submitted
- the legal entity (if you are intending to use one) has been specifically set up to manage the initiative and your representative is authorised to act on its behalf
- the initiative concerns an issue where the Commission has powers to propose an EU law
- the initiative is not abusive, frivolous or vexatious
- the initiative is in line with (i) EU values, as set out in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union and (ii) the rights in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
NO.
The ECI Forum is an informal space where (potential) organisers can discuss ideas for initiatives, as well as find people to team up with or get advice.
To get your initiative registered and to start collecting signatures, you first need to submit a formal request for registration to the Commission.
You will be notified of the Commission decision within 2 months of making your request.
Exceptionally,the registration process can take up to 4 months, if your initiative meets all the requirements except it is not in an area where the Commission has powers. In this case, your group will receive a reply within 1 month already, along with an invitation to change your proposal in this regard.
You would then have up to 2 months to send your updated version to the Commission (or you could decide not to continue with this initiative or to keep it as originally submitted).
If you send an updated version or maintain the initiative as originally submitted, the Commission will take a final decision within 1 month to::
- register the initiative in its full version OR
- partially register the initiative OR
- refuse to register the initiative.
An initiative is partially registered if not all its objectives fall within the Commission’s powers to propose an EU law.
With partial registration, statements of support may be collected only for those parts of the initiative that are registered. If the initiative obtains at least 1 million signatures and is submitted to the Commission, the Commission will examine only the registered parts of the initiative.
Only the registered objectives are mentioned on the online collection system and the paper statement of support forms.
The registration decision in the Commission’s online register contains information on which parts of the initiative have been registered.
The group of organisers must also inform signatories on the scope of registration on their own campaigning websites or other means they may use to promote the initiative.
Only the following information is published:
- the description of the initiative (title, objectives and any other information provided)
- the full names of the organiser group members and the email addresses of the contact persons (representative and substitute)
- if there is one, the full name and email address of the data protection officer
- the country of residence of the representative
- if a legal entity was created to manage the initiative, the name of the entity and the country where it is based
- the campaigning website, if any
- information on sources of funding and other support.
For more on data protection, see the privacy statement.
You can use any of the 24 official EU languages.
YES.
The Commission translates the title, objectives and annex of your initiative into all official EU languages and publishes these on its public register.
If you want to have anything else translated (e.g. a draft legal act), it is your responsibility as organisers to provide the translations through your organiser account. The Commission will then add these translations to the public register.
YES.
The decision is based on legal grounds, which means you can challenge it. The Commission will set out the reasons for its decision and explain which legal or out-of-court remedies are available to you.
This includes bringing proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union or filing a complaint with the European Ombudsman (to complain about maladministration).
You can consult the Commission’s record of past refusals to register initiatives.
YES.
You can withdraw an initiative at any time before submitting it to the Commission (i.e. after you’ve collected all your signatures and had them certified).
Once you’ve withdrawn it, you can’t reopen it, and all signatures become null and void.
But you will still be able to view it, in the ECI register under ‘withdrawn initiatives’.
Collecting signatures
You can choose when to start collecting signatures – but this must be no later than 6 months after your initiative was registered.
You must inform the Commission of the start date at least 10 working days before your chosen date. We will then publish the start and end dates of the collection period in our online register.
For more information, visit the ECI Forum’s ‘How to collect signatures’ section.
YES.
You have 1 year at most to collect signatures.
You can stop at any time if you’re confident you’ve reached the minimum number of signatures (at least 1 million in total, with minimum numbers in at least 7 EU countries). You should aim for as many signatures as possible in excess of the minimum 1 million, to take into account the fact that some signatures may be invalidated during the verification process carried out by the different EU countries.
To terminate the collection of signatures before the end of the collection period, you must inform the Commission of that intention at least 10 working days before the new date chosen for the end of the collection period.
NO.
To collect signatures, you have to use specific forms that comply with the models set out in Annex III of the Regulation on the European citizens' initiative and include all the necessary information on the initiative, as published on this website.
Also, the data that signatories must provide depends on the country they’re from.
To guarantee you have the right forms, you can download pre-filled forms from your organiser account. These already include the relevant details for your initiative. You can add a logo or image of the initiative.
The form should be printed on one single A4 sheet (double-sided printing is allowed).
NO.
You must use separate forms, according to the nationality of the signatories. This means that all signatories on any one form must be nationals of the same EU country.
On each form, you must first indicate the country where it will be sent for verification. Only nationals of this country can then use this form.
You can collect signatures in any official EU language irrespective of nationality.
NO.
As an organiser, you must use the Commission’s online collection system to collect signatures online.
This system is a free, off-the-shelf solution, complying with technical and security requirements.
All you have to do, is sign an agreement as joint data controller with the Commission.
You can then start collecting signatures, 10 days after you’ve informed the Commission about the start of the collection period.
For more information see the ECI Forum’s guidance on the central online collection system.
NO.
This system is a free, off-the-shelf solution. It already complies with technical and security requirements.
All you have to do, is sign an agreement to be a joint data controller with the Commission.
You can then start collecting signatures, 10 days after you’ve informed the Commission about the start of the collection period.
To ensure that support for an initiative is spread among a sufficiently broad range of nationalities.
NO.
All signatures are added to the total number of signatories to reach the 1 million target.
Signing an initiative
You have to fill in a statement of support online or on paper. For most EU countries, you can also sign an initiative using electronic identification (eID).
This varies from one country to another.
For all EU nationals, the following is required: nationality; full first name and family name; and, depending on the country:
either
A. full postal address and date of birth
(for nationals of Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Slovakia)
or
B. a personal identification number and the type of number/document
(for nationals of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden).
Some EU nationals can also use e-Identification to sing an initiative.
Once an initiative has reached the required number of signatures, the details you have collected will be validated by the authorities in each country. Any statement of support that contains erroneous data will not be valid.
For the list of EU countries whose nationals can sign an initiative using eID see: Data requirements (europa.eu).
You must be old enough to vote in European Parliament elections (18 years old in most EU countries). Some countries lowered the minimum age to support ECIs to 16 years. See the full table.
NO.
You just need to be old enough to vote in European elections or be 16 years of age at least for the countries that have decided to allow support from that age (see previous question).
NO.
Only EU nationals (nationals of an EU country) can support European citizens’ initiatives.
In the country you’re a national of.
For example, if you’re a Lithuanian living in Ireland, your signature will be counted in Lithuania.
If you have dual nationality, just choose 1 of your nationalities and fill in only 1 form. You can only support an initiative once.
YES.
When signing up, choose the country you’re an EU national of. Your signature will be counted in that country.
Getting statements of support verified
YES.
You must submit them within 3 months of the end of the collection period.
Designated authorities in all EU countries carry out checks to certify the number of statements of support collected.
They have 3 months at most for this. These checks may be based on random sampling.
There are 2 options:
- You (the organisers) may choose to submit statements of support collected on paper forms using your own means. Statements of support collected on paper may be submitted in paper form, or they may be scanned and submitted using electronic transmission or physically such as via a DVD. If statements of support are submitted in physical form (paper or DVD) this also needs to be done securely, e.g. sent by registered post or delivered by courier. You must comply with all relevant data protection rules at all times.
- You (the organisers) must inform the Commission whether you wish to upload statements of support collected on paper using the Commission’s file exchange service. Scanned versions of the forms can be uploaded in an encrypted form. You will have to upload all statements of support collected on paper within 2 months of the end of the collection period and then inform the Commission when this has been completed.
The Commission sends the signatures collected using its central online collection system to the Member States via its file exchange service. This is a system that allows the secure transfer of statements of support to the Member States. The information is sent in an encrypted form and can only be decrypted by the competent authority concerned.
The file exchange service is a system that allows the secure transfer of statements of support to competent national authorities.
The information is sent in an encrypted form and can only be decrypted by the competent authority concerned.
You can use the means of redress available in your country – for example via national administrative or judicial authorities (including national or regional ombudsmen).
You can also lodge a complaint with the Commission for an infringement of EU law.
Submitting an initiative
YES.
You have 3 months to do this, from the date you received the last certificate from the national competent authorities.
NO.
You only have to send the submission form via your organiser account, as well as copies of all the certificates you received from the national authorities confirming that you’ve collected the minimum number of signatures.
Getting an answer
This meeting is held within 1 month of the date when the organisers submitted the initiative.
It consists of a structured discussion on the content of the initiative, to ensure the Commission has a clear understanding of its objectives (including any clarifications needed), before it prepares its answer.
NO.
Once you’ve submitted your initiative, the Commission informs the Parliament. The Parliament then contacts you to organise the hearing.
In addition to the European Parliament, the Commission also informs the EU Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, as well as all national parliaments in the EU.
Within six months from when it is published as a valid initiative.
The Commission issues a communication stating the measures it plans to take, if any, as well as justifications, and a timeline for implementing the measures.
The communication will be published on this website in all EU official languages.
The Commission also notifies the European Parliament, the EU Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions as well all national parliaments in the EU.
NO.
The aim of the European citizens’ initiative is to enable Europeans to launch a debate and influence the EU agenda by calling on the Commission to propose legislation.
To oblige the Commission to propose legislation would require a revision of the Treaty.
The Commission’s proposal needs to follow the relevant legislative procedure.
This means, to become law it will have to be examined and then adopted by the European Parliament and the EU Council, or in some cases only by the Council.
NO.
Unlike refusals to register an initiative, this decision is based on the Commission’s analysis of your initiative’s substance and is not subject to an appeal procedure.
The citizens' initiative is an agenda-setting tool that obliges the Commission to give serious consideration to requests made by European citizens. However, it’s not obliged to act on them.
If the Commission decides not to act, it will clearly explain its reasons.
Funding and sponsoring
YES.
You must provide information on all funding above €500 per sponsor.
You need to provide this information when submitting your request for registration and then update it at least every 2 months.
You also need to provide information on any non-financial support received that is offered to your initiative.
We will publish the details of your support and sponsors on our online register.
You declare all sources of support and funding in your organiser account, which is the account you used to register your initiative.
You will receive an automatic reminder in your organiser account to update the information on funding and support every 2 months.
Sponsors are people or organisations providing financial support over EUR 500.
Legal persons or organisations providing other economically quantifiable (in-kind donations) or non-economically quantifiable support to an initiative are also considered sponsors.
Individuals providing non-financial support, such as volunteering, are not considered sponsors under the ECI Regulation and do not need to be reported.
If you are unsure whether support you are receiving should be reported, please contact the ‘Seek Advice’ service of the ECI Forum.
NO.
This would go against the principle of citizens’ initiatives being independent and the Commission being neutral.
However, the Commission offers non-financial support in the form of free translation services and its free online collection system for signatures.
And you can find additional support – in the form of advice and guidance – on the European citizens’ initiative Forum.
YES.
If you want to trigger alerts or submit complaints about sponsors and support declared for a particular initiative (e.g. you believe the information published is incorrect or incomplete), use the contact form available on the page dedicated to the initiative.
For us to act on your complaint, you will need to provide evidence for your claim.
We will contact the organisers of the initiative to establish the facts, and ask them to correct any inaccuracies on funding/support.
Communicating
NO.
The Commission is obliged to be neutral towards all ongoing initiatives.
However, it does run general publicity and information campaigns to raise public awareness of the European citizens’ initiative as a way for people to take part in policy-making.
You can visit this site to find out about the latest developments on the European citizens’ initiative in general and specific initiatives or subscribe to the newsletter.
You can also subscribe to receive specific updates on initiatives from organisers and the Commission when giving support to an initiative using the central system run by the Commission.
YES.
You can collect the email addresses of signatories for communication and information purposes, but only if:
- they give their consent
- you comply with the relevant data protection rules.
Data protection
YES.
The European law authorises organisers to collect specific information about you, online or on paper, and to communicate this information to the competent authorities in charge of validating the collected support.
This is a legal obligation for organisers: without information about the signatories, the support for their initiative will not be recognised.
All personal data processed for the purpose of an initiative are subject to data protection legislation.
For the personal data that they process, the representatives of the groups of organisers must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and relevant national data protection legislation.
For the personal data that it processes, the European Commission must comply with the Regulation on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the EU institutions (EUDPR).
For the personal data that they process during the verification of the statements of support, the Member States are subject to the GDPR and relevant national data protection rules.
The Commission’s central online collection system provides the highest level of security for users (including data encryption) in accordance with its rules on secure communication and information systems. It also allows citizens to support initiatives simply by using their national eID.
Not the data you collect in the official statement of support form: you can only use this to support your initiative.
However, you can ask signatories for their contact details separately – subject to their consent - for communication and information purposes.
For more details, see the Data protection guidance for organisers.
The data controller is:
- the representative of the group of organisers, or
- the legal entity, if one has been created to manage the initiative.
This roles relates to the processing of personal data (including email addresses) gathered from individuals during the process of collecting signatures.
The role of data controller is shared with the Commission if an initiative uses:
- the Commission’s system to collect signatures and email addresses
- the Commission’s file exchange service to transfer signatures to EU countries.
During the process of verifying signatures, the national authorities doing this also have the role of data controller.
For more details, see the Data protection guidance for organisers.
Specific rules are set inthe Regulation on the European citizens’ initiative – see Article 19.
For all the other aspects, the organisers, as well as competent authorities in EU countries are subject to the rules of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Where the Commission acts as a joint controller, its actions are governed by Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.
For more details, see the Data protection guidance for organisers.
Statements of support:
You (the organisers) and the Commission must destroy all statements of support signed for your initiative (and any copies) by whichever of these dates comes first:
- 1 month after you submit the initiative to the Commission
- 21 months after the collection period starts.
However, if you withdraw your initiative after the beginning of the collection period, the statements (and any copies) must be destroyed by 1 month after the withdrawal.
The national authorities called on to verify your statements of support must destroy all the statements (and any copies) by 3 months after completing this process.
Exception – if you are involved in any legal or administrative proceedings linked to your initiative, you may retain the statements of support (and copies) for longer than these time limits.
Email addresses:
You (the organisers) and the Commission must destroy all records of email addresses by:
- 1 month after withdrawing your initiative or
- 12 months after the end of the collection period or
- 12 months after submitting the initiative to the Commission.
However, if the Commission responds to your initiative with a formal communication, the retention period for the email addresses ends 3 years after the communication is published.
