The European citizens’ initiative as democratic legitimacy-enhancing tool: Toward a broader conceptualization

Abstract

The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), which allows one million citizens to prompt policy solutions, has become a beacon of hope for increasing the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. This chapter dissects its potential effects for democratic legitimacy, arguing that any comprehensive evaluation of the mechanism should be in broader than just legislative terms. It proposes an extended conceptualization of the ECI as a legislative instrument and also a dialogue-enhancing tool, a deliberative space or an agenda-setting mechanism. The chapter presents the perceptions on the ECI of various actors involved in its design and functioning, and concludes that while the ECI has the potential to perform various democratic roles beyond policy initiation, these are still limited by technical hurdles and inadequate legislative design.