Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine
Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance
Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust
Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine
Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History
Luxembourg Centre for European Law
Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems
On December 12, Dr Elena Danescu, manager of the ED-UNILU and ECI Ambassador, took part in the seventh ECI Network Meeting, the final online meet-up of the year.
These meetups are informal, peer-to-peer exchanges, with short updates shared by the Commission and an invitation for those attending to share questions, ideas, etc. The floor is open for questions or ideas that can be shared with other ECI Ambassadors, National Contact Points, and others.
Summary of meet-up (12 December 2025)
1) Presentation of the latest ECI updates and ECI Forum resources.
2) What came out of the discussions:
- Face-to-face activities still make a real difference, especially when it comes to building trust and explaining what the ECI is.
- Raising awareness of the ECI remains a shared challenge. Many campaigns still start from the same point: people need to understand what the ECI is and why it is worth trusting before they can be asked to support an initiative.
- Using wider campaigns for promoting the ECI as a tool is helpful, e.g., in the context of the Europe Day (9 May), democracy, citizens’ rights, participation etc.
- Social media strategies need to adapt to national and cultural contexts. What works in one country may be far less effective in another, making flexibility essential. For example, reference to national citizens’ initiatives is helpful in countries where they exist.
- Social media content works best when it is targeted and visually strong. Tailoring content to specific audiences, using appealing visuals and clear visual identities (including logos), was highlighted as important.
- Emotional storytelling matters. Beyond explaining an initiative, connecting with people on an emotional level was seen as key to motivating them to support an ECI.
- Influencers were seen as a useful way to increase visibility, although access and budgets can be limiting in some contexts. Alongside well-known profiles, smaller or more local voices were also mentioned as valuable and often more realistic to work with.
- The ECI Forum was highlighted as a valuable resource, offering information and practical support for organisers and useful statistics per country.
The ECI helps bring causes you care about to the EU level, sparking debates, raising awareness, and triggering policy changes. Once an initiative gathers 1 million verified signatures from at least 7 EU countries, the Commission thoroughly assesses the citizens’ demands and adopts an official reply explaining what it will do; in case it decides that no action is needed, the Commission explains why.
Photo: ©European Citizens’ Initiative