“We are fighting with unequal means”
In a last-minute bit of good news ahead of this year’s ECI Day, the ‘Minority SafePack’ European Citizens’ Initiative announced that they had reached the hurdle of one million signatures required for their proposals to be taken into consideration by the EU Commission. That the...
An online platform to support ECIs
At ECI Day this week, the European Commission announced the launch of a new online platform to support organisers of European Citizens' Initiatives. The platform has the ambitious goal of getting more ECIs across the one million signatures finish line, by offering professional...
Under construction: the ECI
This year's European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) Day showed once again that the world's first and only transnational tool of direct democracy is very much a work in progress. Daniela Vancic, European Programme Manager at Democracy International glances ahead at the upcoming...
ECI Day 2018: Working together
On April 10, 2018, the ECI Day took place in Brussels for the seventh time, with the main organiser and host once again being the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). In addition to organisational partners such as Democracy International, European Citizen Action...
How the Dutch government is trying to delete the referendum law
Having entered into force barely 3 years ago, the Dutch Referendum law is now under threat. The newly elected Government wants to abolish the law and have had their first succes when their Repeal Law passed the Dutch Lower House last month. Arjen Nijeboer, Democracy...
The missed opportunity of direct demoracy in Peru
After almost a century of politically and economically turbulent times, Peru has re-established democratic governance since 2001. In the 1980s, the country was dominated by the terror of the' Shining Path'. In the 1990s it suffered from hyperinflation. And while during the...
What drives citizen participation?
For seven years, Dr Klaus Hofmann has been researching legal instruments of direct democracy worldwide for the Navigator for Direct Democracy. Throughout his research, he found that many countries actually have mechanisms...
Crowdsourcing is a step forward in citizen participation
This year's Digital Democracy Day, initiated by ECAS, focused on the question of how crowdsourcing can improve and simplify citizen participation at both local and EU level.
By Melissa Ihlow
Meer Democratie Netherlands to sue Minister over Abolition of the Dutch Referendum
Meer Democratie, our Dutch partner organisation, is starting a legal case against Dutch Minister of Interior Ollongren for her attempts to block a referendum on the imminent abolition of the Consultative Referendum Act. On Thursday, February 1 at 2pm on Thursday, the case will...
All roads lead to Rome – Join us for the 2018 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy
Climate change, inequality, conflict - our challenges today are so great that we cannot pretend to be able solve them on our own, from within our own borders. Our challenges require global action, but as citizens, we build our lives locally, in our own neighbourhoods and...