Today, the European Commission adopted its reply to the twelfth successful European citizens' initiative: 'My Voice My Choice: For Safe and Accessible Abortion’. The initiative collected over 1.1 million valid signatures from citizens across the EU and reached required thresholds in 19 Member States.
Read the Commission communication.
In line with Article 15 of the ECI Regulation, the organisers of 'Stop Destroying Videogames' were given the opportunity to explain the objectives of their initiative in detail. They were received on 23 February 2026 by Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunnen and Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law, and Consumer Protection Michael McGrath, accompanied by European Commission officials.
The next edition of European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) Day will take place on Tuesday, 3 March 2026, as part of the Civil Society Week. The event is organised by the European Economic and Social Committee under the title ‘People, Democracy, Resilience – Our Future!’
ECI Day brings together organisers, civil society and EU institutions to discuss, network and exchange ideas and good practices around the ECI. There will be high-level panel discussions and practical workshops.
Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency, responsible for the ECI, will address the participants in the closing session.
The event will be hybrid, with participation in person in Brussels or online. Registration closes on 25 February.
On 2 March, the European Parliament will hold a public hearing on the 13th successful European citizens' initiative 'Ban on conversion practices in the European Union'.
On 10 February, the Commission partially registered a European Citizens' Initiative entitled ‘EU initiative to protect stray dogs, stray cats and animals in shelters in the EU/non-EU countries’.
The organisers call on the Commission to “strengthen the protection of stray dogs, stray cats and animals in shelters in the EU and to ensure that EU action in third countries does not contribute to animal suffering”.
Some aspects of the organisers’ objectives did not meet the admissibility criteria for registering a citizens’ initiative, therefore the registration was partial. See the Commission decision for more details.
The partial registration followed a two-stage procedure, in which organisers, in a first stage, were invited to amend their initial initiative, taking into account the first assessment of the Commission.
The organisers have six months to open the signature collection.
On 29 January, the European Commission registered a European citizens' initiative entitled ‘Stop Funding Russia’s War: Phase Out Harmful and Useless Russian Imports into the EU’.
The initiative invites the Commission to propose measures to end the EU’s remaining import dependencies on Russia and Belarus by introducing sectoral bans or decisive phase-outs.
The initiative organisers have six months to open the signature collection.
On 26 January 2026, the organisers of the European citizens' initiative ‘Stop Destroying Videogames’ submitted it to the European Commission for examination, after the verification phase was successfully completed.
The 14th successful initiative has gathered 1,294,188 verified statements of support from EU citizens, surpassing the required minimum of one million, and reached minimum numbers in 24 Member States.
The organisers of the initiative call on the Commission to introduce a requirement for publishers selling or licensing videogames in the EU to leave such games in a functional state, so as to prevent publishers from remotely disabling videogames.
The Commission has until 27 July 2026 to present its official reply, outlining the actions it intends to take, if any. See what happens in the meantime: Step-by-Step.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) will hold a debate on the successful European citizens' initiative "My Voice, My Choice: For Safe And Accessible Abortion" in its plenary session on Wednesday 21 January 2026. The debate is linked to the adoption of the EESC opinion on this initiative.
Webstreaming is available.
On 5 January, the European Commission registered a European citizens' initiative entitled ‘Ethics, Transparency and Integrity for European Political Parties’.
The initiative invites the Commission ‘to devise a European model of ethical governance based on transparency, integrity and shared responsibility’. The initiative organisers have six months to open the signature collection.
This is the first initiative registered in 2026, and 125th since 2012.
In line with Article 15 of the ECI Regulation, the organisers of 'Ban on conversion practices in the European Union' were given the opportunity to explain the objectives of their initiative in detail. They were received on 12 December 2025 by Commissioner for Equality Hadja Lahbib and European Commission officials.
