THE EESC SUPPORTS YOU

The ECI at the EESC

During the initial period of the European Citizens' Initiative, the EESC had been pioneering an informal support infrastructure to active citizens across the EU including general advice, translation assistance and the holding of hearings at the EESC for ECIs in the making. Most of these services are now part of the regulatory obligations required by EU institutions such as the European Parliament and the European Commission.

As the most experienced citizens' support institution of the Union, the EESC continues to provide information, guidance and platforms to civil society organisations and ad-hoc groups of active citizens engaged in making Europe a more social and democratic place in the world.

Since 2012, the EESC has hosted the annual conference, the European Citizens' Initiative Day (known in short as the ECI Day) in Brussels, offering an open and free meeting point to ECI professionals and activists across Europe.

Additionally, the EESC invites successful or nearly successful ECIs to its plenary sessions and ongoing ECIs to its section and group meetings as a contribution to increasing dialogue between citizens and the EU institutions and to making the initiatives better known in the European public sphere. These invitations included the Stop Glyphosate (2017), Minority SafePack (2018), Stop Extremism (2019), End the Cage Age (2020) and Eat ORIGINal. Unmask your Food (2020), Save Bees and Farmers (2022) and Fur Free Europe (2023) initiatives.

In addition to this electronic version of the EESC European Democracy Passport, a printed version is available in 24 languages as well as a number of other publications and services.

Participatory Democracy

• The European Parliament's Citizens' App is an online application for smartphones offering information on topics and locations of interest to you. It informs you about events taking place near you; adds your favourites to your personal calendar; shows you the best route via your favourite maps application; provides multimedia content such as videos, podcasts and slideshows; is searchable and shareable, and can be customised and ranked. Available on Apple Store and Google Play in 24 languages.

• The Democracy.Community is a transnational network of democracy supporters hosted by Democracy International. The platform is open for everybody for informational, educational and networking purposes and offers participatory stories and event opportunities. You can register yourself/your organisation/institution and create a democracy supporter profile.

• The European Citizen Action Service is an international organisation with pan-European membership. Its mission is to empower citizens in order to create a more inclusive and stronger European Union by promoting and defending citizens' rights and developing and supporting mechanisms to increase citizens' and citizen organisations' democratic participation in, and engagement with, the EU.

• The Participo platform is provided by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development). Here you can find all kinds of information around the research and practice of participatory and direct democracy at all political levels. The platform is part of the OECD's effort to explore the paradigm changes underway from traditional representative government towards modern representative democracy.