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Today, the European Commission decided to register a European citizens' initiative entitled ‘Ensuring Common Commercial Policy conformity with EU Treaties and compliance with international law’.

The organisers of the initiative call on the Commission to ‘propose legal acts based on the Common Commercial Policy to prevent EU legal entities from both importing products originating in illegal settlements in occupied territories and exporting to such territories, in order to preserve the integrity of the internal market and to not aid or assist the maintenance of such unlawful situations.’

It is important to highlight that the initiative invites the Commission to submit a proposal for a legal act under the Common Commercial Policy, which is general in nature and does not target a specific country or territory.

The Commission has registered a new European citizens' initiative ‘ReturnthePlastics: A Citizen’s Initiative to implement an EU-wide deposit-system to recycle plastic bottles’.

The organisers of the ‘ReturnthePlastics: A Citizen’s Initiative to implement an EU-wide deposit-system to recycle plastic bottles’ initiative call on the Commission to present a proposal to:

• implement an EU-wide deposit-system to recycle plastic bottles,
• incentivise all EU Member States that supermarkets (chains) which are selling plastic bottles install reverse vending machines for recycling the plastic bottles after being purchased and used by the consumer, and
• make the plastic bottle producing companies pay plastic taxes for the recycling and deposit-system of the plastic bottles (under the principle that the polluter should pay).

This is the seventh new initiative that is registered in 2021.

On 15 July, Věra Jourová, the Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, participated in an exchange of views with the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions. The subject was: the follow-up to the successful European citizens’ initiatives.

The Vice-President described the next steps for the ‘End the Cage Age’ initiative, as well as the actions taken on the previous answered initiatives. She replied in detail to the questions and comments made by the Members. Watch the recording here.

The Commission has registered today two new European citizens' initiatives.

‘European EcoScore’

The organisers of the ‘European EcoScore’ initiative call on the Commission to propose ‘a reliable European EcoScore’ – a mandatory label providing consumers with information about the environmental impact of products manufactured or sold on the EU market. The label would be based on a standardised calculation, starting with food and clothing but ultimately aiming to cover all types of products.

‘Save cruelty-free cosmetics - Commit to a Europe without animal testing’

The organisers of the ‘Save cruelty-free cosmetics - Commit to a Europe without animal testing’ initiative call on the Commission to propose legislation, which would strengthen and broaden the existing EU bans on animal testing for cosmetics and the marketing of ingredients tested on animals. The legislation would also set out a roadmap to phase out all animal testing before the end of the Commission’s current mandate.

With these two registrations, the number of new initiatives registered in the first half of 2021 is 6.

The European Commission published its response to the European citizens' initiative ‘End the Cage Age', the sixth successful initiative supported by over 1 million citizens across the EU.

Read the Commission communication, press release and watch the video.

The Commission registered today a new European citizens' initiative.

The organisers of the ‘Ban Fossil Fuel Advertising and Sponsorship' initiative invite the Commission to propose a ban on advertising and sponsoring that support and promote the market for fossil fuels and for all types of vehicles using those fuels (excluding the vehicles dedicated to transport services of general economic interest).

This is the fourth initiative registered in 2021.

In their resolution on the “End the Cage Age” European citizens’ initiative, Members of the European Parliament ask the Commission to come up with legislative proposals to ban caged farming in the EU, possibly already by 2027, following an appropriate transition period and after a solid scientific impact assessment has been carried out.

The resolution was adopted on 10 June with 558 votes in favour to 37 against, and 85 abstentions.

Watch the recording of the debate in the plenary session on the EP website.

On 16 June the European Commission is inviting citizens to discover the European Citizens’ Initiative - with a focus on Ireland – and on 18 June it will be Luxembourg’s turn. To broaden the reach of these events and thanks to the digital format, citizens from other EU countries can also join.

Check out the dates of upcoming events on our website. Recordings from the events focused on Germany, Denmark and Sweden are also available.

Due to the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission decided on 3 June to grant a further 3-month extension to six citizens' initiatives that are currently in the process of collecting statements of support. Six other initiatives for which the collection is also still ongoing have already benefitted from a total maximum extension of 12 months with the previous extensions that were granted in July 2020, December 2020 and February this year. Organisers of the initiatives concerned have been notified by the Commission. Read the text of the Commission implementing decision.

The 10th edition of the European Citizens' Initiative Day will take place online on 3 and 4 June. It is organised by the European Economic and Social Committee in cooperation with institutional and civil society partners.

Thursday 3 June will be a full day of debates on the ECI instrument, focusing on aspects key to making the ECI more powerful and strengthening participatory democracy at EU level.
The programme will also include workshops geared to the organisers of initiatives, and will cover matters such as online campaigning and fundraising.
On 4 June, the organisers of ongoing initiatives will be given the floor to present their initiatives.
For more information on the programme, speakers and workshops, please check the regularly updated event webpage. Register before 30 May!