Article 11 TUE as a gateway for the participation of grassroots organisations in European policy-making

The entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty containing an article including a European citizens’ initiative (11 TUE) coincides with the emergence of movements proposing alternatives agendas for EU. This paper intends to contribute to analyse whether these new mechanisms can be a way to channel grassroots movements into a form of political participation at EU level. In particular it will test the hypothesis that the ECI is contributing to provide access to the EU to European or national organisations that are usually not involved in other participatory mechanisms of the EU such as consultation on policy proposals.

The paper will be based on the analysis of a database on past and ongoing citizens’ initiatives containing information on the promoters and campaigners, the topics and policy areas, the number of signatures and countries where they were gathered as well as organisational data about the number of staff, budget and number of European countries where organisations are active. These data will be contrasted with organisations participating in civil society consultations and those registered in the EU Transparency Register, in order to test whether the promoters of the ECI are traditional EU-level organisations or whether it is facilitating the mobilisation of a new constituency.