Can We Really Change EU Law? The European Citizens' Initiative

The Lisbon Treaty introduces a new form of public participation in European Union policy shaping, the European citizens' initiative (ECI). The European Citizens' Initiative is one of the major innovations of this treaty aiming to increase participatory democracy in the European Union (EU).The ECI will allow 1 million citizens from at least one quarter of the EU Member States to invite the European Commission to call directly on the European Commission to bring forward an initiative of interest to them in an area of EU competence. As required by the Treaty, on a proposal from the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council adopted a Regulation which defines the rules and procedure governing this new instrument (Regulation (EU) No. 211/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council 16 February 2011 on the citizens' initiative). In accordance with the Regulation, it will only be possible to launch the first European Citizens' Initiatives from 1 April 2012. This initiative includes several steps: identifying and developing an idea, verifying the legality, considering the alternatives, taking into account the research ECI procedures, writing the initiative, building a multinational citizens' initiative committee, building an alliance, evaluating the opposition, developing a budget and in our analysis will identify the weaknesses and the strong points. The methodology of research comprises bibliographic studies and different analysis of the Regulation (EU) No. 211/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the citizens' initiative).