Foundation on European Citizens’ Rights, Involvement and Trust

EU Legislative Interests

- European Democracy Shield - Recast of Council Directive on the electoral rights of mobile EU citizens in European Parliament elections; - Recast of Council Directive on the electoral rights of mobile EU citizens in municipal elections - Citizens' omnibus - EU Citizenship Report 2026 under Article 25 TFEU - Follow-up Conference on the Future of Europe; - Monitoring case-law of the CJEU on EU citizenship - The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) instrument; - Draft ERASMUS regulation and the MFF

Communication Activities

- The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), ‘Voters Without Borders’, which aims to reform existing rights and to extend them to regional, national elections and referendums. Having been launched in September 2020, the signature collection ran until 11 June 2022 after several extensions. The ECI was followed up with a European symbolic election on 26 April 2024 just before the next elections to the Europen Parliament. ECIT benefits from Pro Bono support from Latham and Watkins for framing proposals to the European Commission and organising further events. - A ‘Cross-Party MEP Group on European Citizenship’, which functions as a platform to the MEPs to interact and promote a dialogue between them and civil society on legislative topics pertaining to European citizenship, European political rights and the future of Europe. Quarterly meetings are planned. Around 14 MEPs - from different groups, committees and nationalities – have formed an informal collective to bring together a broad spectrum of political opinion on relevant topics and legislation. Efforts are being made to revive this group in the new European Parliament. - Lobbying the European Commission and European Parliament for EU voting law reform, specifically the recent package concerning ‘Reinforcing democracy and integrity of elections.’ ECIT is also lobbying the European Parliament to follow-up to the 2020 Citizenship Report, and lobbying both the European Commission and European Parliament for ECI Reform in an effort to improve the signature collection system and the visibility of ECIs on the Commission webpage; - A ‘Statute on European Citizenship’, a drafted ‘Charter of European Citizens’ Rights’, codifying the rights and responsibilities of European citizens. The idea of the Statute was supported by the Conference on the Future of Europe and by resolutions from the PETI, LIBE and AFCO committees in the previuos European Parliament; - Submitting complaints to the European Commission requesting it launch infringement proceedings against EU Members states, specifically concerning the disenfranchisement of EU citizens in five EU Member States.ECIT has an agreement with the law firm Latham and Watkins which provides pro-bono legal assistance. A first complaint is being followed up by a new one relating to disenfranchisement of EU citizens in the European elections - Organizing an Annual Conference, bringing together civil society activists, researchers, policymakers and students to discuss relevant topics pertaining to European citizenship. The 2025 edition was held on 3 December and focused on the role of the EU institutions in developing this unique transnational citizenship, particularly in the light of case 181/23 Commission v. Malta. The 2025 edition also featured the follow-up in the new legislature on ECIT priorities : statute on EU citizenship; full political rights for EU citizens; a new ECI on European citizenship education.

Interests Represented

Does not represent commercial interests

Member Of

- ECIT is a member of the board of Europeans around the World (ETTW) (Link: https://euromonde.eu/); - ECIT is a member of ALDA ( Association of Local Democracy Agencies ) -The Foundation works closely on political rights with VRAR(voting rights for all residents) ; - Tony Venables is a member of the constituent assembly of the Democratic Odyssey -The ECI "Voters without borders" led to the creation of an ad hoc coalition of 50 organisations on voting rights and it is expected that the new ECI "All on Board " would involve similar coalition- building. A European coalition is being put in place with the support of the Life-Long Learning Platform

Organisation Members

- - ECIT has a cooperation agreement with Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (European Dialogue) (Link: https://www.freiheit.org/european-union/focus/about-us-brussels); - ECIT had a cooperation agreement until 2022 with NECE (Networking European Citizenship Education) (Link: https://www.bpb.de/die-bpb/partner/nece/); -Other affiliations are created in the context of EU funded projects such as MobileCIT, NOTE, European Union Democracy Rally or an Erasmus plus project-Eurocartoons -The pro- bono support from two Brussels base law firms Latham&Watkins and Paul Weiss is extensive and involves close collaboration and regular meetings to plan next steps. The first provides support on voting rights; the second is drafting model legislation to accompany the ECI "All on Board"

Additional Information

- Funding received in the form of grants from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation was mostly spent on activities related to the 'Voters Without Borders' ECI; When the ECI came to an end in June 2022 support has focussed on the cross-party group of MEPs on European citizenship. The budget in 2023 was just under 18.000 euros with a small additional fee for a senior consultant to help steer the activities. For the future, ECIT will relaunch the group after the June 2024 European elections, hopefully with support from other political foundations