European Citizens’ Initiative Forum

The European Citizens’ Initiative Forum is your first go-to place if you’re thinking about launching a European Citizens’ Initiative. Over the years, hundreds of organisers have shared their experiences, lessons, and creative strategies for campaigning across borders. The Forum brings all that knowledge together in one place.

Backed by more than a decade of experience with the ECI, the Forum consolidates best practices, expert insights, and hands-on advice collected since 2013. From building a cross-country network to navigating EU legal requirements or crafting a message that resonates, the Forum gives you a head start so you don’t have to begin from scratch.

The Forum makes the ECI more accessible to everyone who believes that citizens should have a direct say in shaping EU policy. It’s a living support hub for Europe’s most participatory democratic tool.

Democracy International designs and runs the Forum’s stakeholder consultations and then turns what we learn into practical support for organisers. We design and facilitate these consultations to gather feedback directly from those using the ECI, analyse what works (and sometimes more importantly, what doesn’t work). That means new or improved guidance notes, learning materials, webinar content, and tailor-made campaigning advice - all shaped by real organiser experience to make running an ECI based on real-world lessons rather than trial and error.

We surface best practices, connect organisers with peers and experts, and translate complex lessons into actionable tools like checklists and templates. Our goal is to simply make the ECI more accessible and effective for citizens who want to move policy in Europe.

By keeping the Forum user-driven and relentlessly practical, Democracy International helps ensure that hard-won know-how becomes shared knowledge.