The European Citizens' Initiative Rules! Exploring the Link Between the European Public Sphere and the European Union

Questions on the viability of a public sphere and citizens’ involvement at EU level have gained increasing academic attention over the past two decades. Whether based on empirical research or not, arguments in favour of a fully-fledged European public sphere (EPS) serving as a public forum for deliberation on European policies and politics, are rather thin on the ground. Instead of contributing to that study of the internal development of the EPS, this paper goes one step further by exploring the link between the evolving EPS and the policymaking of the European Union (EU). This link is examined by focusing on the case of the newly introduced European citizens’ initiative (ECI) and its implementation and application so far. More specifically, using a new-institutional perspective, an analysis is carried out of the “rules-in-form” and the first series of “rules-in-use” developed and applied with regard to this new tool for transnational citizens’ participation in the EU. By mapping out these predetermined formal conditions on the one hand and ad lib informal provisions on the other, evidence is given on how the link between European citizens and EU policymaking is established through the ECI. Therefore, three distinctive features of the ECI’s implementation and application are explored; the actors involved and their roles, the procedure, and the non-procedural facilities. The research is based on qualitative document analysis and semi-structured interviews with ECI organisers, national and EU officials involved in the ECI, and external experts assisting ECIs. As the first series of ECIs have not yet completed their procedure, the findings presented in this paper are preliminary. They nevertheless indicate that in case of the ECI the link between the EPS and EU policymaking has been managed in a concerted manner, but has been troubled by confusion over the division of responsibilities and mismatching facilities.