The European Citizens' Initiative: Chances, Constraints and Limits

Abstract: In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of European Union citizenship under the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, the year 2013 has been designated by the European Commission as the 'European Year of Citizens'. The European Citizen's Initiative (ECI) - labelled by the Comm...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Link(s) zu Dokument(en):IHS Publikation
Hauptverfasser: Glogowski, Pawel, Maurer, Andreas
Format: IHS Series NonPeerReviewed
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Institut für Höhere Studien 2013
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Abstract: In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of European Union citizenship under the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, the year 2013 has been designated by the European Commission as the 'European Year of Citizens'. The European Citizen's Initiative (ECI) - labelled by the Commission as a 'direct gateway through which citizens can make their voices heard in Brussels' - may emerge in the European awareness as a new appealing platform for policy-shaping and communication. The ECI, through its transnational vox civilis character, figures among the most important novelties in the Lisbon Treaty and in the long run may facilitate and accelerate the bottom-up building of a European demos. The question is, however, whether the mechanism of pan-European signature collection is strong enough to face the democratic challenges present in the EU, especially during the ongoing financial crisis.;