(28 March 2018) – The European Commission has today adopted its second report on the application of the European Citizens’ Initiative Regulation.
Since this new tool entered into force in 2012, an estimated 9 million Europeans from all 28 Member States have now supported a European Citizens’ Initiative.
Four successful initiatives have so far collected over 1 million signatures each and the Commission has committed to follow-up actions on 3 of them.
Non-legislative improvements to the tool have resulted in a significant increase of the number of initiatives accepted for registration: about 90% of proposed initiatives since April 2015, compared to 60% of all proposals in the previous 3-year period.
Among the 4 Citizens’ Initiatives that gathered support from over 1 million citizens, the Commission is following up on the ‘Stop Vivisection’ initiative with non-legislative actions; in response to the ‘Right2Water’ initiative, the Commission proposed a revised Directive on Drinking Water last February; and following the initiative ‘Ban glyphosate and toxic pesticides’, the Commission has announced a legislative proposal to improve transparency in scientific assessments and decision-making.