European Citizens' Initiative promotes active participation and empowerment

The European Citizens' Initiative promotes the participation of citizens across Europe on matters of their everyday lives, with the aim of empowering all European citizens and creating awareness.

A recent relevant press release noted that an ECI Promotion Handbook has recently been published and local authorities could now easily find all the information available-- in all official EU languages-- to make ECI’s more accessible to all EU citizens.

Public bodies implementing actions will also be invited to share their experiences at events in Brussels in 2025.

As noted in the announcement, the EPIs are a unique tool that allows EU citizens to propose legislative changes on issues that concern them, asking the European Commission to propose new laws.

This is an institution launched with the Treaty of Lisbon and has been active since 2012.

The organisers of the EPIs should be a group of seven EU citizens, from at least seven different member states, all eligible to vote in the European elections.

They must choose an issue that falls within the legislative powers of the European Commission and have one year to collect one million verified signatures. If they succeed, the European Commission and the European Parliament discuss their goals in detail and decide on possible actions.

Since 2012, more than 1,000 citizen-organizers have launched 118 EPIs, with the active participation of 5 citizens from Cyprus.

Cypriot citizens contributed to this number by collecting more than 19,000 signatures.

A multilingual European webinar on how local authorities can encourage citizen participation and active participation will be held on 17 October.

The 'EU democracy in action - Have your say with the European Citizens' Initiative,' meanwhile, is an interactive resource aimed at upper secondary school students and designed to equip them with the knowledge and skills to enable them to become active citizens.

(Source: CNA)