openPetition.de is private German website that serves as a tool for citizens to submit petitions (e.g. to the German Bundestag). Now with the formal start of the ECI it is going European in requesting the Commission to provide a central public online collection platform for citizens to collect signatures for their own initiatives.

In order to submit that ECI openPetition is looking for EU residents from seven different Member States to support the idea and volunteer for the required citizens’ committee.

At the moment, Jörg – the guy behind the site – has got support from Germany, Austria and Luxemburg leaving him four supporter short. If you wish to support the cause feel free to contact him directly at joerg@mitzlaff.net or read his blog on the matter.

The initiative proposal reads as follows:

Title:
Central public online collection platform for the European Citizen Initiative

Objectives:
Provide an online Europeean Initiatives Platform where you can register new initiatives and collect signatures at the same time. Show an overview of all initiatives which can be broken down by topic, country and polularity. Allow originators of an initiative to get in contact with their suppoerters and allow all citizens to discuss and argure each of the decisions. Show transparrently at which state each of the initatives are and who is in charge of the next step until the final deciscion on that topic has been made.

Reason:
Why should everyone put in the effort of hosting its one online collection tool when you can have a single one for all of us? Providing an open source collection software is great but only half the way. If we want to enable European Citizens to participate in the European politics then we have to provide a low barrier tool which works instantly and without technical expertise.