With close to 1.9 million signatures, “One of Us” is Europe’s most successful citizen’s initiative!

While it is still possible that some further form-sheets with signatures will reach the organisers, one may assume that by now, ten days after the deadline for signatures, no significant increase is to be expected any more. It is therefore time to look at the outcome of the initiative and draw some conclusions.

According to the latest calculations published today, the initiative “One of Us” has received the support of 1.894.693 citizens, which, by a narrow margin of roughly 10.000 signatures, places it on top of all European Citizens’ Initiatives (ECIs) that have been concluded so far. In other words, it is now clear that the protection of the right to life as from conception is the first and most important among the concerns that European citizens want to bring to the attention of their politicians. It would be a devastating blow to the EU’s ambition to get rid of its “democratic deficit” if this clear and unequivocal message remained without consequences.

If one takes a closer look at the other two initiatives that have surpassed the threshold of 1 million signatures, the outstanding success of “One of Us” becomes even more impressive. The runners-up are an initiative called “The Water Campaign”, which, opposing alleged plans to liberalise the market for water services, has collected close to 1.885.000 signatures, and “Stop Vivisection”, an initiative to prohibit animal testing, with 1.126.005 signatures. All other ECIs registered so far have received far less than 1 million signatures. Among the three successful campaigns, however, “One of Us” reached the minimum quota of support in 20 of the EU’s 28 Member States, whereas “The Water Campaign” achieved this success only in 13 Member States, and “Stop Vivisection” in 11. Furthermore, the success of the other two campaigns was based to a very large extent on the mobilisation of supporters in one single Member State: 1.382.195 signatures for “The Water Campaign” (i.e. more than 73% of all signatures collected by this initiative!) stem from Germany alone, and 570.400 signatures for “Stop Vivisection” (more than 50%) were collected in Italy. Both initiatives would thus have far less than 1 million signatures if one subtracted the signatures from the single Member State in which they had their best results. By contrast, “One of Us” is a truly European success: even if one subtracted all the signatures that have been collected in Italy (631.024) and Poland (248.965), the two countries where the greatest number of signatures were collected, the initiative still would have been successful.

We note thus with satisfaction that “One of Us” is the EU’s most successful citizens’ initiative in every respect, and that, with all due respect, Europeans find the protection of human lives more important than the protection of animals’ lives (which, as we don’t hesitate to say, is also important).

But there is another important difference.

Among the three successful initiatives, “One of Us” is the only one that comes along with a ready-made legislative proposal that is (a) realistic, and (b) compatible with EU Law. With regard to “Stop Vivisection”, we have already explained our doubts in a previous post on this blog: if animal testing were to be completely prohibited, the alternatives would be to place new medical, chemical, or cosmetic products on the market without having tested them, or to test them on human beings, both of which is dangerous and unrealistic. With regard to “The Water Campaign” one has reason to ask whether the political (in-)action proposed by that initiative stands not in contradiction to its stated purposes: there are plenty of examples that demonstrate how in many countries the liberalization of water services has actually improved both the quality and the availability of those services. Moreover, the EU simply has no competence to prevent a Member State from liberalizing or privatizing water services – and there even is room for doubt whether water utilities can be exempted from the free circulation of services, which is one of the EU’s foundational principles.

By contrast, the proposal promoted by “One of Us” simply consists in modifying the EU’s Financial Regulation in a way that would forestall the financing of research projects that imply the destruction of human embryos, and the funding of abortions in developing countries through the EU development aid budget. This proposal could be implemented immediately, and without major difficulties. There is absolutely no need for the EU to fund research projects that (a) are highly unlikely to lead to any therapeutic use and that (b) in any case, according to the Brüstle vs. Greenpeace decision of the European Court of Justice, cannot lead to results that could be exploited economically, given that the patenting of inventions using such techniques is prohibited. Even less is there any need for the EU to fund abortions carried out by Planned Parenthood and Marie Stopes International in developing countries. Or do we have to assume that the real purpose of this type of “development aid” is to reduce the number of people who, ten or twenty years from now, might try to migrate to Europe?

The proposal made by “One of Us” has the further merit that its implementation would save the EU considerable amounts of money that could be put to better use. Instead of funding abortions, the development aid budget might be used to fund schools, irrigation, streets, and other important projects that actually improve the lives of people, instead of taking lives. The research budget might be used to fund research on adult stem cells, which, contrary to the controversial research projects on embryos, have already yielded a wealth of possible therapeutic uses.

Thus, while there are reasons for caution with regard to the other two initiatives, there is absolutely no excuse for the EU institutions not to implement the proposals made by “One of Us”.

View online at: https://c-fam.org/turtle_bay/with-close-to-1-9-million-signatures-one-of-us-is-europes-most-successful-citizens-initiative/

© 2026 C-Fam (Center for Family & Human Rights).
Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.
www.c-fam.org