How EU citizens help shape EU laws and policy

Brussels: This past June, Europeans were called to use their vote and elect their representatives in the European Parliament. This was democracy in action, but it is not the only way EU citizens can have their voice heard and influence the creation of EU laws. Other tools exist too, and these are used to give the wider public the opportunity to co-create EU policies every day, not only every five years.

You can help to initiate new proposals. If you want the EU to take action on a particular issue, you can launch a citizens’ initiative calling on the European Commission to propose new EU legislation on that issue. Two of the most recent initiatives the Commission registered concern the closing of animal farms and labelling of food. You can also submit a petition to ask the European Parliament to look into an issue that affects you, or complain about how an EU law is being applied.

Then there are the European Citizens’ Panels. These bring together randomly-selected citizens from all 27 Member States to discuss – at European level – key, upcoming proposals that affect us all. Based on the discussions, citizens make recommendations for the European Commission to consider when defining policies and initiatives.

The Citizen’s Engagement Platform on the other hand, is a dedicated space for engaging and debating on EU policies that affect us all. People can participate by posting contributions or by commenting or endorsing contributions from others.

You can also register to the Have Your Say portal and then share your views on Commission initiatives. By doing so, you can help to fine-tune preparatory work on EU legislation at different stages of the process. Roadmaps, draft acts, proposals and adopted acts are usually open for feedback periods of 4 weeks.