The ECI, Europe’s first step toward participatory democracy, has been in place now for more than ten months, but the instrument’s usability is disputable. ECI organizers continue to report that the new instrument is not yet working as expected because the online infrastructure has not been sufficiently developed (see earlier posts here and here). Unfortunately, this has already led to a considerable loss of online signatures. More…

The European Citizens’ Initiative “30 km/h – making the streets liveable!” has given a very valuable résumé on its first experiences with the ECI process. It also includes helpful suggestions how to improve the ECI instrument in general. Read the report by Heike Aghte. (Special thanks goes to Paul Carline for the translation). More…

We warmly invite you to the ECI technical working meeting: “Building a User-Friendly ECI Online Collection System”.

The event will take place on January 25th 2013, in Brussels, from 09.00-15.30 at the Economic and Social Committee.

Please register here by January 10th if you wish to attend. BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND PROGRAMME: More…

In the midst of Europe’s worst economic and democratic crisis in recent memory, the EU has been honoured with one of the world’s most prestigious awards. The announcement ignited spirited debates about global problems and the scale of the solutions needed in the near future. More…

ECI Organizers have expressed an urgent need to make a more user-friendly design choice for the official Online Collection System (OCS) which the EU Commission is obliged to provide to ECI organizers. In our view some simple modifications to the OCS could make quite a change to ECI working in practice. More…

Today the EU commission has informed again ECI Organizers about the extension of the 12 months deadline for collecting signatures. This however has caused questions in some Member States about the validity of signatures. The ECI Campaign urgently calls for a pragmatic and quick solution in and with Member States, so that ECI Organizers have a save ground to continue their ECI campaigns. Read the letter below sent to ECI Organizers. More…

For half a year now the ECI is officially and practically available for European citizens. As such it is the first element of transnational, participatory and digital democracy in history, giving 1 million citizens the right to ask for changes to European law. Expectations attached to the EU’s new participatory democracy tool are high. Read the report by Carsten Berg, general coordinator of the ECI Campaign, about the first experiences made with the European Citizens’ Initiative. More…

After several wake up calls by The ECI Campaign and MEPs the EU Commission has thrown a “lifeline” and send the following letter to ECI organizers. More…

For the first time an ECI has been withdrawn. Please find their letter which was sent to the European Commission explaining the reasons behind this difficult decision: More…

European Citizens Initiative (ECI) risks being strangled by EU commission. For all the optimistic pre-implementation debate, the EU’s new democracy instrument has gotten off to a poor start, writes Carsten Berg, Coordinator of the ECI Campaign. More…