A European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) is an invitation to the European Commission to propose legislation on matters where the EU has competence to legislate. A citizens' initiative has to be backed by at least one million EU citizens.

The petition signatures are referred to Statements of Support (SoS). In order to facilitate the collection and control of these SoS, the EU Commission has developed two softwares available on JOINUP:

• the Online Collection Software (OCS) intended for Initiatives organizers.
• the Validation Tool (VTECI) intended for National Authorities.

The Online Collection Software

OCS is an open source web tool to serve for the online data collection of citizens supporting a given initiative. This software facilitates both data collection and its verification by the competent authorities.

Its main features are:

- Secure signature collection respecting ECI legislative requirements.

- Forms available in 24 official languages.

- Data entry and validation rules based on passport, ID card and postal code formats.

- Export electronic data of signatories to be analysed by National Authorities.

New public demo environment

A new OCS demo site enables ECI stakeholders to get familiar with the latest version of the software. It can also be used to review the data entry and validation rules implemented in OCS and the Validation Tool.

OCS in production: view and support an open initiative

The ECI Register lists all Open Initiatives. Each Initiative promotion site provides a link “vote” that point to an OCS in production. The ECI Register provides also detailed information about how to launch an Initiative and the requirements to prepare your Online Collection System.

City/Location: Brussels