European Citizens’ Initiative
Review and Reform
BA Political Science and Public Administration, LL.B candidate, MSc candidate,
Researcher of Human Rights and Gender Studies SRC of IAPSS
Citizens' involvement in the policy-making process has always been an important issue for the European Union. The values of the European Union, particularly following the Lisbon Treaty revision, are in favor of the citizens’ democratic contribution. For this reason, the European institutions contributed to the creation of the European Citizens' Initiative mechanism with Regulation 211/2011. Since the start of the mechanism, millions of citizens have signed petitions to the European Commission to request amendments or propose a new legislative text. After years of implementation and following a series of Eurobarometers and technical assessments, the European Commission submitted in 2017 the proposal to revise this Regulation. The European Parliament and the Council of the EU have accepted the proposal and are in the preparatory process so that they can reach the adoption of the new Regulation by 2020.
