*[Enwl-eng] Here’s the latest:

[ENWL]

Hi,

At this very moment our signatures are being verified in interior ministries across the continent. From Amsterdam to Zagreb, our names, addresses, identity numbers and dates of birth are being checked, all to see if enough Europeans support changes in the law. And all of this checking could still take months longer.

The campaigns we work on together aren’t always decided in a matter of days, weeks, or even months. Sometimes they take years to see through to completion, like when we start a European Citizen's Initiative (ECI).

The ECI is a special way that ordinary European citizens like us can demand the European Commission change in the law in Europe. It’s different from a regular petition because the ECI legally obliges the European Commission to consider, investigate, and respond directly to our demands as citizens – as long as the ECI reaches 1 million signatures. [1] 

The ECI we coordinated in 2017 against the toxic pesticide glyphosate gathered more than the required 1 million signatures and directly resulted in a law which will give citizens and independent scientists alike more information about potentially toxic substances in our food system. [2] But while that ECI started collecting signatures in 2017, the new law was only finalised by the EU in 2019 – over two years later. And it still won’t take effect until 2021. [3] 

ECIs may be long, tedious, and expensive to run, but the legal obligations they impose on our decision makers in Brussels make it all worth it. That’s why our community supported two ECIs last year that have recently finished collecting signatures: The End the Cage Age ECI and the EatOriginal ECI. Our community didn’t coordinate either of these initiatives, but we gave them our signature numbers and jump-started movements. 

The End the Cage Age ECI is calling on the European Commission to prohibit the use of cages in European farming in order to end inhumane treatment and suffering of animals. The campaign was started by Compassion in World Farming, a global animal welfare organisation with offices all over Europe. [4] They recently sent us a note to thank us all for our support: 

“...the breath-taking way the WeMove Europe community rallied behind our call, signing and sharing the initiative thousands of times, gave our campaign an early boost that set us up for success. For our ECI, the WeMove team were our guardian angels. Their expertise and unconditional support were fundamental to our initiative getting across the finishing line.”


Activists for the End the Cage Age ECI deliver signatures to national ministries for verification.
© Compassion in World Farming

The EatOriginal ECI is calling on the European Commission to impose mandatory origin declarations for all food products — to protect our health, to prevent food fraud, and to guarantee our right to information as consumers. [5] Coldiretti, an agriculture association representing 1.6 million farmers in Italy, kickstarted it in Italy back in 2018. Since then, it grew throughout Europe to the point that our movement could push the initiative over the edge. Volunteers literally collected hundreds of thousands of signatures on paper, and we jumped in at the very last moment.

Signature collection for both of these ECIs has now completed, which is why our signatures are in European capitals to be verified over the coming weeks and months. Only time will tell if these two initiatives will be successful and compel the European Commission to respond to our demands, but we should all feel immense pride in what we have already accomplished together.

And we’re not stopping now! Our movement has been critical in supporting the ECI to Save Bees and Farmers, which started collecting signatures less than two months ago. Thanks to all of us, our community is leading the signature count across the whole alliance! But there’s still a mammoth amount of work to be done over the next several months if we want a real shot at hitting 1,000,000 signatures and changing the law to protect bees and farmers.

      Donate towards our common work to support ECIs! 

Thanks for all that you do,

David, Virginia (Madrid), and the entire WeMove Europe team



References:
[1] https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative/how-it-works_en
[2] https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/choir-of-approval-over-new-eu-food-safety-transparency-rules/
[3] https://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/general_food_law/transparency-and-sustainability-eu-risk-assessment-food-chain_en
[4] https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative/initiatives/details/2018/000004_en
[5] https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative/initiatives/details/2018/000006_en



WeMove.EU is a citizens’ movement, campaigning for a better Europe; for a European Union committed to social and economic justice, environmental sustainability and citizen-led democracy. We are people from all walks of life, who call Europe our home whether we were born in Europe or elsewhere. 

WeMove Europe SCE mbH | Planufer 91 Berlin | www.wemove.eu | Privacy policy

 

From: David - WeMove Europe 
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2020 11:21 AM
Subject: Here’s the latest:
 
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