On 1 April nine years ago, the European citizens’ initiative left the station of democratic innovation design and began its mission of bringing the EU and its citizens closer. To take stock of the nine-year-long journey of the European Citizens’ Initiative as it embarks on its future, I want to write to you about – […]

The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is the first and, up to now, only instrument of transnational, participatory and digital democracy in the world and has its origins in the Constitutional Convention in 2002-03. When the ECI entered into force in 2012, civil society organisations across Europe have highly welcomed this new right which confers citizens […]

10 years since the adoption of the first ECI regulation: cause for celebration or concern? European citizens and organised civil society have so far played the central role in making the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) fit for purpose; now the European institutions need to join them and step up their game. As the European Citizens’ Initiative […]

Today, on 19 April, the long-awaited Digital Platform of the Conference on the Future of Europe (COFOE) will be unveiled. This ought to give EU citizens, civil society and the political establishment some time to familiarise themselves with this cornerstone experiment in ‘virtual transnational democracy’ ahead of the formal launch of the Conference in Strasbourg […]