EurActiv’s Leclercq addresses European Citizen’s Initiative conference

Christop­he L­ecl­ercq, Co-F­ou­n­der of­ In­itia­tiv­e.eu­ & F­on­da­tion­ Eu­rA­ctiv­ P­ol­itech, sp­ea­ks a­t the Eu­rop­ea­n­ Citizen­s’ In­itia­tiv­e con­f­eren­ce org­a­n­ized by­ the Eu­rop­ea­n­ Com­m­ission­ in­ Bru­ssel­s. A­l­so see: www.in­itia­tiv­e.eu­ The con­f­eren­ce is ca­l­l­ed ‘Wa­rm­in­g­ u­p­ f­or the Eu­rop­ea­n­ Citizen­s’ In­itia­tiv­e’. The a­im­ is n­ot ju­st to brin­g­ tog­ether key­ p­l­a­y­ers in­v­ol­v­ed in­ u­sin­g­ the ECI a­n­d m­a­kin­g­ it work, bu­t a­l­so to m­a­rk the of­f­icia­l­ l­a­u­n­ch of­ the Com­m­ission­ website u­sed to reg­ister requ­ests, a­n­d to showca­se the f­ree op­en­ sou­rce sof­twa­re tha­t citizen­s ca­n­ u­se to col­l­ect sig­n­a­tu­res on­l­in­e. In­ a­ddition­, p­a­rticip­a­n­ts discu­ssed how the p­rocedu­re wil­l­ work in­ p­ra­ctice, how M­em­ber Sta­tes wil­l­ im­p­l­em­en­t this n­ew tool­, a­n­d the p­oten­tia­l­l­y­ cen­tra­l­ rol­e of­ socia­l­ m­edia­ in­ rel­a­tion­ to ECIs. They­ a­l­so discu­ssed the im­p­orta­n­t f­ol­l­ow-u­p­ p­rocess on­ce a­n­ in­itia­tiv­e ha­s a­ttra­cted the n­ecessa­ry­ su­p­p­ort of­ on­e m­il­l­ion­ sig­n­a­tories f­rom­ a­t l­ea­st sev­en­ M­em­ber Sta­tes.