This site is structured as  follows:

1. ECI papers produced by the EU-institutions

2. Current and past  research within ECI-Campaign

3. Other Academic Resources

1. ECI papers produced by the EU-Institutions

In the meantime all three main EU-institutions EU-Commission, Council and European Parliament have agreed on a final ECI-regulation. For all 23 language versions click here. For an overview and monitoring of the decision-making process click here. Council and the Commission had come up with a first compromise on June 14^th 2010. On December 15th 2010 the European Parliament has finally voted on the ECI-regulation. Before it had produced  several drafts and opinions that were discussed  in the Constitutional Affairs and Petitions Committees.

ECI-Campaign has already urged the European Parliament to come up with a ECI-resolution in 2009, see here.

2. Current Research within ECI-Campaign

ECI-Campaign and  its supporting organisations and individuals perform research on a variety of questions, in order to guarantee the creation of the most accessible and citizen-friendly ECI-regulation.

We perform research on the existing population and election registries in Member States. Background: the majority of Member States currently claim they could only verify ECI-signatures when citizens are required to present their ID-number,  more on this here. Our hypothesis is that this is untrue as long as a population registry or something similar exists through which a person can be identified. Should you have knowledge on this question please let us know.

Another research focus is on the ECI online collection system and the question how civil society could set up an independent online collection platform. More on this challenge here and here.

We have already documented so called informal initiatives or “test” / “pilot” ECIs that have been taken place in the spirit of the principle of ECI and researched on numerous ECI-questions, see: ECI-Handbook 2008.

Already in 2008 ECI-Campaign has come up with an own detailed ECI-proposal, in which you find a lot of background information on the legal nature of ECI, an overview of existing citizens’ initiative rights in EU Member States and many more aspects, see here.

We also have analysed the Commissions proposal in detail and proposed amendments which were partially taken up, see here.

3. Other Academic Resources

Berg, Carsten (2008): The European Citizen’s Initiative process.

Berg, Carsten, Kaufmann, Bruno et all. (editors) 2008: Initiative for Europe Handbook 2008 – The guide to transnational democracy in Europe.

Berg, Carsten (November 2009):  EU-Commissionʼs proposal for ECI needs improvement! A first analysis of the Commissions Green Paper.

Boucher, Stephen (2009): If citizens have a voice, who’s listening? Lessons from recent citizen consultation experiments for the European Union, Notre Europe, Working Paper, No. 24, Juni 2009

Bruno, Elisa (2011): The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI): entrusting civil society participation versus enhancing the democratic legitimacy of the EU institutions? Thesis at the College of Europe

Efler, Michael (2011): Stellungnahme zum Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Durchführung Europäischer Bürgerinitiativen

Emmanouilidis, Janis A. / Stratulat, Corina (2010): Implementing Lisbon: A critical appraisal of the Citizens’Initiative. European Policy Centre, Policy Brief Juni 2010

de Witte, Bruno / Trechsel, H.,  Alexander / Damjanović, Dragana / Hellquist, Elin /  Hien, Josef/ Ponzano, Paulo (2010): Legislating after Lisbon – New Opportunities for the European Parliament (includes an entire chapter on ECI).

García, Luis Bouza, Greenwood, Justin (2012): The European Citizens’ Initiative: a First for Participatory Democracy?” von  Luis Bouza García & Justin Greenwood.

Głogowski, Paweł, Maurer, Andreas (2013) The European Citizens‘ Initiative – Chances, Constraints and Limits

Hierlemann/Wohlfarth, Europäische Bürgerinitiative – Neuerung mit Sprengkraft, Bertelsmann Foundation, 2010

Hornung, Ulrike (2011):  Die Verordnung über die Europäische Bürgerinitiative – mit Vollgas und angezogener Handbremse zu mehr Demokratie in Europa? (Ulrike Hornung is working in the German Ministry for Interior Affairs on the implementation of ECI, but is writing here as a private scholar. We recommend this text.)

Kaczyński, Piotr Maciej (2010): The European Citizens’ Initiative: A Proper Response from the Commission. Centre for European Policy Studies, Commentary 8.1.2010

Karatzia, Anastasia (2013): The European Citizens’ Initiative: Giving Voice to EU Citizens

Kaufmann, Bruno / Pichler, Johannes W. (Hrsg.): The European Citizens’ Initiatives. Into New Democratic Territory. Wien 2010

Leitner, Erwin (2011): Die Europäische Bürgerinitiative – Ausgangspunkt für die künftige Europäische Volksabstimmung

Maurer, Andreas / Vogel, Stephan: Die Europäische Bürgerinitiative. Chancen, Grenzen und Umsetzungsempfehlungen, SWP-Studie, Oktober 2009

Mehr Demokratie e.V.: Stellungnahme zum Grünbuch der EU-Kommission über die Europäische Bürgerinitiative

Mehr Demokratie e.V. (2011-06-23): Position Paper on the draft law implementing the ECI in Germany.

Ponzano, Paulo (2011): A million citizens can request European legislation: a sui generis right of initiative

Schnellbach, Christoph (2011): The European Citizens’ Initiative: a useful instrument for public participation?

Thomson,  Janice (2011): ECI: ‘A Space inside Europe for the Public’ before ‘A European Public Space’

4. You have researched and published on ECI? Please let us know

Research is an important pillar within ECI-Campaign. Science and political development need and meet each other here. Any of your research results are of interest for us. Please feel free to let us know and get in contact with us.