The European Citizens Initiative: the impact of digital campaign activism on EU democracy?

The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) launched in 2012 was described as a democratic innovation to the EU structure allowing for the first time citizens to propose policy. Popular initiatives have been introduced in other settings but the transnational character and official status of the ECI was the first of its kind. Accordingly, the debates of the success of the ECI have often discussed its potential in terms of its original contribution to EU democracy. While the organizers of the ECI campaigns have been found to largely represent an already established EU audience of organized civil society and political elite, previous studies have often neglected the role of the citizen signatories. The ECI requires one million EU citizens, meeting certain requirements of representation, to sign an initiative campaign officially registered on an assigned website during a restricted time period; a design reflecting the promises of e-democracy. This paper therefore explores the impact of the ECI in EU politics through a focus on its introduction of digital campaign activism and the EU citizens that engage with the ECI campaigns. It hence discusses the impact of the ECI in relation to its ambition of enhancing citizen engagement rather than its promise of citizen influence. The analysis is conducted building on ideas of mediatization and digital activism and the premises that the democratic shortcomings of the EU could be met with new media opportunities of the digital age. The empirical material consists of campaign analysis of selected ECI web platforms and social media channels.