How the European Citizens' Initiative Works: 1 Million Signatures Explained
Collect one million signatures across enough EU countries, and the European Commission must formally respond. The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) is the only tool that gives ordinary citizens that power. Here is how the thresholds, the deadline and the process actually work – and when a regular petition is the better choice.
What the European Citizens' Initiative is
The European Citizens' Initiative is an official way for citizens to take part in EU law-making directly. It allows citizens to invite the European Commission – the only EU body that can propose new EU laws – to put forward legislation in an area where the EU has the power to act.
It is not an ordinary petition. It is a structured legal procedure, governed by Regulation (EU) 2019/788 (in force since 1 January 2020), with strict rules on who can sign, how signatures are collected, and what happens afterwards. Learn those rules before you start, or you can waste a year of work. One rule to know up front: an ECI cannot be run on this platform – statements of support must be collected through the European Commission's own system.
The main numbers you need to know
- 1,000,000 signatures. You need at least one million valid statements of support from EU citizens.
- At least 7 countries. The signatures must come from a minimum of seven EU member states – a quarter of all EU member states (the EU has 27 countries) – each meeting its own country threshold (see below).
- 12 months. Once collection opens, you have one year to reach the target. You may set the start date up to six months after your initiative is registered.
How the per-country minimum works
A million signatures alone is not enough – the support must be spread across Europe. In each of the seven (or more) countries you count towards the threshold, you must reach a national minimum.
That minimum is set by a simple formula: the number of Members of the European Parliament elected in that country, multiplied by 750. Because larger countries elect more MEPs, their thresholds are higher:
- Highest: Germany, with the most MEPs (96), needs roughly 72,000 signatures.
- Lowest: the smallest member states (such as Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus, with 6 MEPs each) need around 4,500.
The exact figure for every country is listed in Annex I of the Regulation and is updated whenever the number of seats each country has in the European Parliament changes, so always check the current official table on the European Commission's ECI thresholds page before you plan your campaign.
Who can sign
A statement of support (the official name for an ECI signature) comes with tighter rules than a signature on a normal online petition. To sign an ECI you must be:
- An EU citizen – a national of an EU member state.
- Old enough to vote in European Parliament elections. That is 18 in most countries, but some allow younger signers: a few member states permit signing from age 16 or 17.
The full journey, step by step
Form an organising group and register
You need a citizens' committee of at least seven EU citizens living in seven different member states. You submit your proposed initiative to the Commission, which decides whether to register it, normally within 2 months. The Commission can only refuse for specific legal reasons – for example, if the request is clearly outside its powers. You will also have to publicly declare any funding or sponsorship above a set amount.
Collect signatures for up to 12 months
Statements of support are gathered through the Commission's free central online collection system, through your own certified system, or on paper. The clock runs for a maximum of one year. Signatures must be collected and presented according to each country's data rules – and note that some member states ask signers for a personal ID or document number, which can put people off.
Get the signatures verified
If you reach the thresholds, the national authorities of each member state verify the statements of support and certify how many are valid. Only certified signatures count towards the million.
Submit to the Commission
With certified totals in hand, you formally submit the initiative to the European Commission.
The Commission responds
A successful initiative triggers a fixed sequence:
- Within 1 month: the Commission meets your organisers.
- Within 3 months: you present the initiative at a public hearing in the European Parliament.
- Within 6 months: the Commission publishes a formal reply setting out what action, if any, it will take and why.
What success really means: a reply, not a guarantee
Understand this one thing before you spend a year on an ECI. A successful initiative means the Commission must look at your initiative and reply – it does not have to propose the law you asked for. The Commission can decline, as long as it explains its reasons publicly.
Even so, a million-signature initiative has real impact. It forces an issue onto the European agenda, secures a parliamentary hearing and a public answer with reasons, and has repeatedly pushed the Commission towards new legislation. For example, End the Cage Age, backed by over 1.4 million verified signatures, led the Commission in 2021 to commit to proposing an end to cage farming; and Right2Water, the first successful initiative, fed into stronger EU drinking-water rules. It is a big, slow, demanding tool – powerful when an issue genuinely belongs at EU level.
Is the ECI the right tool for your cause?
For most campaigns, the answer is no – and that is not a criticism. The ECI only fits a specific kind of goal:
- Use an ECI when your aim is genuinely EU-wide legislation, you can build an international committee, and you can sustain a year-long, multi-country drive to a million verified signatures.
- Use a regular petition for almost everything else: a local, regional or national issue, a company, a school, a local or regional government body, or any decision a specific person has the power to make. It is faster, simpler, open to non-citizens and minors, and needs only as many signatures as it takes to move that one decision-maker.
If you are weighing it up, start with the realistic question of how much support your specific target actually needs – see How Many Signatures Do You Need? – and make sure you are aiming at the right person with How to Choose a Decision-Maker. For the bigger picture on what petitions can and cannot achieve, read Do Online Petitions Actually Work?
Whatever the scale of your goal, the work is the same in spirit: a clear ask, the right target, and enough visible, verified support to make it hard for a decision-maker to ignore you.