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      The time has come!
Draft programme

The last chance to find out about the ECI before it really begins!

You can register here

2^nd Annual Conference

From 1^st April 2012, citizens will have the collective European right to use a transnational democratic tool, the first of its kind, to approach the Commission with a demand for a potential legal act. The newly established regulation on the ‘European Citizens initiative' (ECI) will enable citizens, with the support of 1 million signatures, to become directly involved in law-making with the EU Institutions and therefore to become a part of the enforcement process.

On the 17 March 2011, shortly after the adoption of the regulation, ECAS held the conference ‘Getting Citizens' initiative started', providing the first opportunity to look at the legislative regime and assess the challenges for organisers with regards to the legal basis of their initiative, fundraising and campaigning to collect the signatures, as well as compliance with the different European and national technical requirements. The conference showed that much remained to be done before initiatives are going to be launched.

The ‘European Citizens' initiative: on the starting line', to be held on the 20 March 2012, will provide participants with a final opportunity to discuss the regulation before it comes into force.

The conference will include keynote speakers from the institutions - Vice President of the European Commission for Inter-Insitutional Relations and Administration,´Maroš Šefčovič´and co-rapporteur of the ECI,´Gerald Häfner'- along with other prominent representatives from academia and civil society. They are invited to contribute to discussions on the following questions:

  1. What does the regulatory framework look like across the EU?

By the time of this second conference, a complete picture of the national regimes from the European countries will be available and therefore based on a survey it will be possible to rank the member states in line with their progress. As a consequence, this conference will provide participants with the unique opportunity to see how the regulatory framework of each country will look like.

  2. What ECIs are being prepared or considered?

Last year, even before the adoption of the regulation, the conference presented experiments with possible ECIs - One seat campaign, Initiative for Applied Anthroposophy and the European Disability Forum. This time, discussion s will focus on real possibilities for initiatives to be presented by the organisers such as Media Pluralism, Water as a service of general economic interest and Social innovation.

It is not true that ECIs will only come from powerful lobbying groups or well-structured organisations. On the contrary. Therefore, it will be important to create an effective and supportive infrastructure for more dispersed citizens' interests. For this purpose, 4 workshops have been designed to work on the specific skills of citizens committees and organisers which might be lacking to make the use of the regulation a success:

Although the regulation has enormous potential, the jury is still out as to whether it will be a source of frustration or will really close the gap between the EU and its citizens.