As of now, more than 100 organisations from 17 EU member states have expressed support for the European Citizens' Initaitive (ECI) while the EU-wide alliance is constantly growing - Attac groups from a number of EU countries, Food and Water Europe and  the German branch of Transparency International have already joined the coalition. Campact, Attac, the Munich Environment Institute, the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Unit (NABU) and More Democracy Germany (Mehr Demokratie e.V.), partner organisation of Democracy International, coordinate the preparations.

An ECI can request a legislative act from the European Commission and force a hearing at the European Parliament. For an ECI to be successful, at least one million signatures must be collected. At the same time, country-specific quorums must be achieved in at least seven EU member states. In Germany, for example, the quorum will be 72,000 signatures. France has to collect 55,500 signatures and the United Kingdom and Italy need 54,750 signatures. Estonia, Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus have to collect 4,5000 signatures. The level of the quorum depends on each country’s number of deputies in the European Parliament. The most well-known ECI so far is “right2water”. It led to the exclusion of the liberalisation of water supply from the scope of the EU directive on concessions.

More information:

- about the campaign by Mehr Demokratie e.V. against TTIP here
- Position paper in German: "TTIP und die Demokratie - wo ist das Problem?"