Right now the total number of signatures is being divided between 3 ECIs and roughly 42 Parliament Petitions, so we need people to sign as many as possible in order to show a large cumulative total number of signatures.
With so many petitions that are out, it’s hard to know which ones to focus on. A couple petitions have managed to collect over 300,000 signatures. However, these were informal requests made through change.org and neither the Commission nor the European Parliament are required to act. In order to create new laws to protect EU citizenship and its rights, legislative proposals begin with the European Commission. These proposals are then reviewed and voted on by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
European Citizens’ Initiatives (ECIs) go through the European Commission while petitions go through the European Parliament. That is why it is imperative to sign both!
We need to show strength in numbers. The links below lead to the open ECIs and to Parliament petitions that seek to ensure that EU citizenship and its rights are protected.
European Citizens’ Initiatives
http://ec.europa.eu/citizens-initiative/public/initiatives/open/
- Click above to enter the Commission’s page for open initiatives
- Click on Support
- The form will say: “Please select the member state you come from.”
- For this question, it is better to choose the country of residence
- Depending on which country you live in, it may ask you for a particular document such as a passport or national identity card
- Enter the information that is requested and click on support!
Petitions Portal to Parliament
https://petiport.secure.europarl.europa.eu/petitions/en/show-petitions
- Click on the link above to open the European Parliament’s petition portal
- Search for “citizenship”, “any year”, and “Brexit”
- Click on Register
- Enter information and wait for confirmation email
- Verify account and click on “support a petition”
- Enter keyword “citizenship” and select theme “Brexit”
- There should be over 40 results
- Sign as many as possible!
For more information on ECIs please CLICK HERE and for more information on Petitions CLICK HERE