ECI Day 2025: European Citizens Initiative needs to reach its full potential

PRESS RELEASE No 10 Brussels 18 March 2025 ECI Day 2025: European Citizens’ Initiative needs to reach its full potential The European Citizens’ Initiative has proved to be an effective tool for increasing citizens’ participation in the political life of the EU. But it must be reinforced to counter the risk of the EU institutions becoming detached from ordinary Europeans. The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) took centre stage on the second day of the European Economic and Social Committee’s (EESC) Civil Society Week on 18 March. The ECI is an EU participatory mechanism designed to strengthen direct democracy by allowing at least one million EU citizens (with a specified minimum number of nationals from at least seven Member States) to ask the European Commission to propose an act in an area where Member States have transferred powers to the EU level. ‘The EU should take further steps towards participatory democracy to complement its representative form. The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is the very first instrument of participatory democracy at transnational level. It is the closest equivalent to a citizens’ legislative initiative, but let’s not forget that it is also an agenda-setting tool’, said Laurenţiu Plosceanu, EESC Vice-President for Communication. According to the European Ombudsman, Teresa Anjinho, the ECI is a powerful instrument, but it has not lived up to its potential. ‘We have to improve communication on...