Seventeen million Europeans do not live in their country of origin.
They pay taxes and contribute to the economies of the Member States they moved to. Still, they are not entitled to full political rights as they cannot vote in national and regional elections in their destination countries.
For a group of students united in the initiative "Voters without Borders":
"It is a European problem that needs a European solution."
That's why they started an ECI – which stands for European Citizens' Initiative. An ECI is an instrument of transnational direct democracy enabling 7 citizens from 7 countries to collect signatures to ask European Commission to adopt a new policy.
The objective of their petition is to improve the situation of millions of EU citizens living in other EU country and enable them to exercise voting rights, and, in the best scenario, start a legislative process to extend them beyond the local and European elections.
Wonder how a group of students can set up a task force to ASK the European Union to extend the political rights of its citizens?
We interviewed Anna Comacchio and Peter Markovic, who are in charge of this project.
They told us: how they started, how they are organized and how it is possible to replicate what they are doing for your own mission.
More on Voters without Borders:
https://ecit-foundation.eu/eci-proposal-1 https://voterswithoutborders.eu/ Do you want to start an ECI? Here you can find allies! :)
Check the ECI Iniziative Forum:
https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative-forum/home_en[Recorded a few weeks back]
