While EU officials were hammering out a solemn declaration to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, citizens remained spectators of the European project. In this role, they can only applaud or boo the players, but they don’t have the means yet to become players themselves. The aim of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) – a campaign supported by thousands of citizens and 117 NGOs (and growing) – is to overcome this lack of democracy.

“We are convinced that without giving citizens the power to shape the European Union, the whole project is heavily endangered”, says Carsten Berg, General Co-ordinator of ECI. “Sunday speeches and official pronouncements remain empty as long as citizens are not actually given a concrete democratic tool to place them to the centre of the European project.” People still feel powerless and therefore tend to perceive the EU as cold and bureaucratic.

In order to overcome the democratic deficit, new channels of communication and participation have to be opened. One point is clear: only participation “produces” legitimacy, therefore it takes concrete action to fill European democracy with life. This is where the European Citizens’ Initiative comes in as an essential right. It will allow one million citizens to propose concrete policies to the EU.

Once implemented, this right will be the first trans-national tool of citizens’ participation. Experience shows that the right of initiative not only strengthens the role of citizens. It clearly improves the communication between them and their representatives. The introduction of the right of citizens’ initiative therefore represents a first and feasible step along the long path of democratic reform. It is a clear signal in the right direction of travel: only with the citizens on board we find a way out of the EU’s current crisis.

In November 2006 the ECI Campaign was successfully launched and celebrated by a series of events (e.g. a press conference in the European Parliament, street actions in several European cities or even MEPs collecting themselves signatures). Since then, the public support for the objectives of the campaign continues to grow. Today, some 14 initiatives on a wide range of issues have arisen (please have a look on our website to find out more about the aims of these initiatives).

Most of these initiatives have been inspired by the action of our campaign. While most of them focus on specific issues which they want to have recognized by the European institutions, the ECI Campaign remains focused on the introduction of the legal right of citizens’ initiative itself. As long as this right itself is not introduced, all these initiatives run the risk to be ignored.

Citizens can sign our appeal in the traditional way - on paper - or online at: www.citizens-initiative.eu (signature forms in already 21 languages are available on the same website). If you are interested in the campaign, please contact us. We would be glad to send you more information.