The European Citizens’ Initiative: Mobilization Strategies and Consequences

Abstract

Research on the European Citizens’ Initiative has neglected the crucial role of social movements. This article contributes to the study of mobilization strategies and campaign consequences through two novel arguments: First, in explaining successful mobilization, I argue that the European Citizens’ Initiative as a political opportunity structure incentivizes the organization of nationally focused campaigns centred in at least one large, that is, populous state, instead of Europe-wide activism. Second, in explaining the multiple consequences of European Citizens’ Initiative mobilization, I show that a campaign may have important, often unintended, effects beyond (the failure to achieve) policy change, including disappointment with the democratic process leading to European Citizens’ Initiative reform and a renewed focus on national politics. This article provides an in-depth analysis of one of the only five European Citizens’ Initiative campaigns that have been able to collect the required one million signatures, while referring to other campaigns as shadow cases. The findings have important implications for debates on EU democracy.

Crisis of democratic legitimacy of the decision-making process of the Union and the role of the European Parliament

“…Participatory democracy through the European citizens' initiative (De Clerck-Sachsse, 2012;Bottger, Plotkka, 2016;Weisskircher, 2019;Blockmans, Russack, 2020) is not an initiative mechanism in the proper sense but an agenda setting tool (Hatton, 2016) 76 . To evaluate this democratic power, not only the initiative function of the EC must be taken into consideration, but also its effects on the identification of interest for European citizens.…”

Normalising the ‘alter-Europe’ or going beyond this Europe? Italian environmental movements’ perspectives on Europe, democracy and the ecological crisis

“…This is the case for both environmental but especially animal advocacy organisations (Bertuzzi, 2019b). For example, Essere Animali, an association that has been at the forefront of the relevant ECI #StopVivisection 11 (Weisskircher, 2019), stresses the action of the European Parliament on various issues, which has slashed 'animal suffering, thus limiting the use of antibiotics and preventing the problem of antibiotic resistance'. 12 At the same time, however, one of the key activists of this association says that he is not 'well informed about the European level' (IntIE3).…”