This publication is the first paper in a series of three papers, available in French and Spanish.
The second paper, “The Corporatist Economy and the Nanny State”, was published by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and GEF in September 2015, is available here.
The third paper, “Beyond the Corporatist Economy: Impulses for a Green Economic Policy”, was published by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and GEF in September 2015, is available in English and Spanish.
The European Citizens’ Initiative gives citizens the right to set the agenda of the European Union and establishes a truly multifunctional means of providing checks and balances for what happens in the EU. This Pocket Guide offers readers the knowledge and insights necessary to make effective use of this new instrument.
In the six months that passed from the launch of the ECI instrument, 25 European Citizens’ Initiatives have been filed. Of these, 14 were registered by the European Commission, while others were rejected or withdrawn. The main challenge these first initiatives faced was related to the establishing a functional Online Collection System of signatures. In order to support the first initiatives, the European Commission offered organisers free servers in Luxembourg and decided to postpone the official start for the collection of signatures to August 2012, to make up for these initial set-backs. Even so, to date, only one of fourteen registered ECI’s is able to collect signatures online.
With this new edition of the ECI Pocket Guide, updated with the latest news and links to further sources of information and support, GEF aims to assist ECI organisers in their difficult challenge of pioneering European participatory democracy.
This updated edition has been produced by GEF for the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament.
How to use this Pocket Guide?
The Pocket Guide is divided in 3 sections which address the following questions, respectively: how can you use the ECI? What are the requirements you have to fulfil to successfully complete an ECI? Where can you find assistance for your ECI?
The ECI KEYCHAIN helps organiser identify the most suitable approach to an ECI. It details the various goals that an ECI can serve, such as introducing new ideas on the European legislative agenda, stopping existing legislation or acting as a platform that mediates between different legislative approaches.
The ECI PATHFINDER is a manual to assist ECI organisers or potential signatories to find their way through the often lengthy and sometimes cumbersome procedure of an initiative. The manual develops the 10 step approach to a European Citizens’ Initiative, already detailed in GEF’s earlier publications: The European Citizens’ Initiative Handbook and the flyer 10 Steps to the European Citizens’ Initiative.
The ECI RESOURCE CENTRE provides a wealth of details on the constitutional foundations, legal statutes and procedural regulations of the ECI. This chapter has been completely updated.
Order your copy now!
Would you like an own copy of the Pocket Guide? Then send us e-mail at info@gef.eu and we’ll send you one.
Successful pilot ECIs
GEF’s Campaign Handbook covered a number of successful ‘pilot ECIs’. These were efforts by NGOs and civil society groups to gather 1 million signatures in order to influence the EU’s agenda. They were inspired by the ECI, but took place before the ECI comes into effect on April 1st 2012.
1 million European Citizens for better animal welfare
Europeans unite for fair roaming
European Disability Forum and their ground-breaking ECI
Back in 2009, when the Green European Foundation and the Heinrich Böll Foundation gathered, for the first time, the ambitions of newly elected Green Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in a yearbook, the European Union was a different type of affair. The effects of the financial and economic crises were not yet in full swing, austerity measures had not yet become the buzz-word of the political agenda, and the climate summit in Copenhagen was still preserving the hope that the European Union would deliver on its promises to be the world’s climate champion. Although clouds were on the horizon, the general mood in European circles was still very much business as usual.
Five years later, we are faced with a different scenario. The effects of the economic and financial crises, as well as the social impact of the austerity-driven response to these crises, had raised existential questions about the future of the European Union. Euro-scepticism reached unprecedented levels, and parties campaigning on explicitly anti-European platforms made gains across the Union. Citizens’ movements reacting to austerity measures imposed by “Brussels” made clear the popular disenchantment with a political establishment that seemed keener on bailing out banks than safeguarding jobs and welfare. There were times as recent as two years ago when the European Union seemed to be facing “make it or break it” types of challenges.
Even though this urgency has passed for now, the crisis is far from over. This is the background in which the newly-elected Green MEPs will be working over the next years.
New challenges, new voices
In a context where anti-European debates are likely to be placed in the spot-light, the challenge for the new Green Group will be to articulate their criticisms to the various EU policy approaches that venture off the paths of sustainability, equity, democracy and respect for fundamental rights, while keeping an overall pro-European narrative. Among this new Green group, there are many new, first-time parliamentarians. They will need dedication, imagination and an understanding of the need to reach out to civil society and grassroots movements to come up with successful policy approaches to the difficult tasks ahead: setting ambitious climate targets; tackling energy security and energy poverty; bringing prosperity back to the EU; ensuring a humane migration policy, and responding to new geopolitical realities.
The articles that make up this collection detail the new MEPs’ ambitions, expectations and analyses of the opportunities and challenges lying ahead in their specific policy fields. The articles discuss both the visions of the EU that they are bringing to Brussels, by reflecting on the messages picked up during the elections’ campaigns, as well as how these visions translate in a Green working project in the European Parliament. The contributions describe the biggest challenges for the upcoming years on topics such as greening the economy, transforming energy policy, building a democratic EU, creating a human-rights based migration policy, positioning the EU as a strong and fair global player in areas of trade, agriculture, foreign affairs – to mention but a few. Finally, the authors reflect on their ambitions from the various policies they’ll be focusing on and note their expectations for their parliamentary mandate.
Read articles in other languages
Parts of the articles are available also in the respective native languages of the authors: Catalan, Croatian, Hungarian, Swedish and Spanish.
It is more evident than ever that politics at a national level alone cannot provide the solutions for the most challenging issues of our time. In this sense, a true European response is fundamental in ensuring a success of the causes the Greens are fighting for: environmental protection, an efficient use and a safe and sustainable production of energy, a reorientation of our economy to guarantee social inclusion and social security and – on the world stage – peace, development and the consolidation of democracy and fundamental rights.
But all of this cannot be achieved without genuine conversation and participation of both European politicians and the citizens they serve. In order to inspire them to engage with the European Union and work with colleagues across borders, this book aims to change the perception of the EU as a complex institution, which is hard for citizens to interact with.
Through an accessible and reader-friendly format, Europe for Beginners presents some of the most useful information on how the EU operates: what the different institutions do, how decisions are made, how EU law is enforced and how the EU is funded. It also includes a discussion of the role of democracy, the rights of European citizens and the challenges for a true European democracy, such as the power of lobbies.
Downloads this manual in English, French, Spanish, Czech or German below.
