The ECI Campaign’s Review of 2024

As we reflect on the past year, we see a time full of challenges that we have constantly addressed with relentless democratic action. You find an overview of our main activities below.

• ECI Day: on 5 March, The ECI Campaign co-organised the annual ECI Day in Brussels, primarily focusing on two key panels. Panel 1 exposed the EU’s failure to act on the successful ECI End the Cage Age, despite its official promises to do so. Panel 2 explored ECIs combined with randomly selected citizens’ panels, featuring inspiring thinkers like Marlene Engelhorn (ECI Tax the Rich) and writer David van Reybrouck. The opening panel revealed sharp divides—while our Director Carsten Berg and campaigners warned of a crisis of the ECI due to the failed follow-up to successful ECIs, the Commission denied the problem. Check out our article in which we look back at the event.
• 2024 European Elections & the campaign for a EP Democracy Intergroup: ahead of the European Parliament elections (6-9 June 2024), we analysed all party manifestos and engaged with political groups on their stance toward the ECI. While most overlooked it, the European Greens and some other smaller parties spoke out for ECI reform. After the elections, we pushed for a Parliamentary Intergroup on Democracy together with other pro-democracy NGOs. Despite the support of over 100 MEPs, formal approval was narrowly missed. But we won’t stop here—we will stay engaged, build alliances, and explore an informal group to keep participatory democracy at the heart of the EU agenda.
• End The Cage Age Court Case: On 27 June, The ECI Campaign (Association for the ECI e.V.) requested the European Court of Justice to intervene in the landmark End the Cage Age (EtCA) legal action against the European Commission. This case is about more than just one initiative—it is about the future integrity of the ECI itself and the much-needed follow-up to successful ECIs. In other words, at stake is the very credibility of the ECI as a democratic tool, and by extension, EU democracy more generally. Despite 70 civil society organisations making this argument in our joint open letter to the Commission, the Court regrettably rejected our request on 23 January 2025, adopting an unduly narrow and technical interpretation of who is affected by the case. This decision sets a concerning precedent, risking the effectiveness of future ECIs and undermining public trust in the EU’s commitment to participatory democracy.
• Freiburg Democracy Day 2024: on 6 July, The ECI Campaign and AllWeDo e.V. hosted and organised the Freiburg Democracy Day 2024, a day of deep inspiration and reflection to tackle today’s pressing democratic challenges. This intense gathering brought together leading thinkers and actors in the democracy movement, including David van Reybrouck (G1000), Eva Rovers (Bureau Burgerberaad), Roman Huber (Mehr Demokratie e.V.), and Percy Vogel (BürgerBegehren Klimaschutz e.V.). Building on our intellectual partnership with AllWeDo and Leibfried Prozessbegleitung, The ECI Campaign played a key role in shaping the 2024 publication Citizens’ Assembly PLUS (English edition), which builds on the Freiburg Climate Assembly and explores how electoral, deliberative and direct democracy can effectively complement one another in practice.
• Shaping the agenda of the new EU Commission: with a new European Parliament comes a new EU Commission. We’ve been in active contact with MEPs in order to raise critical ECI-related questions during the confirmation hearings of the Commissioners-designate, drawing on our 5 key demands for an ECI that works. While the ECI was brought up in the process leading up to the installation of the new Commission, we continue to have serious concerns as to whether democracy and the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) are truly safeguarded under the new Commission.
• ECI helpdesk and awareness raising: we’ve been supporting various new and ongoing ECIs in 2024 through our independent ECI Helpdesk service, such as End the Cage Age, Tax the Rich, Fur Free Europe, HouseEurope!, My Voice, My Choice and Rights of Nature. Also, we participated in the ECI Forum on Right to Food, held in Geneva from 29 to 31 May. Additionally, we’ve increased our activity on social media in order to raise awareness about ongoing ECIs and about overall developments related to the instrument and EU democracy more generally.

Picture: Participants of the Freiburg Democracy Day.