Alberto CotticaIf you are a European Union citizen, there is a concrete way you can support a peaceful resolution in Iran and Gaza: you can demand the full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement in view of Israel’s violations of human rights.
THREAD 1/
This treaty is the legal cornerstone of cooperation between the two parties. Its suspension would be a big deal for Israel: the EU is by far its main trading partner, and its universities rely on the Horizon Europe programme for research funding.
Early this year, a group of people launched a European Citizen Initiative (ECI) to demand its suspension:
https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2025/000005_en
2/
An ECI is a "very official" form of petition, run by the European Union itself. If it is successful, the @EUCommission has a legal obligation to respond with an official act. Additionally, the European Parliament organizes a hearing centered on the petition, and might (but it is far from certain) also discuss it in plenary.
https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/how-it-works_en
3/
There are two success conditions. First, petitions need to gather at least one million signatures within a year of starting collection. Second, in at least seven different member states certain minimum thresholds must be reached in the number of signatures collected nationally.
Most ECIs fail, but this particular petition is doing VERY well. It started collection in January; the second condition is already exceeded, with ten member states achieving over 100% of their thresholds.
4/
Let's acknowledge these countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden. Well done!
The second condition is on track to be met and exceeded, too. As I write this, the petition stands at 712,525 – almost 3/4 of the way, with still 9 months to go. This could easily be the most successful ECI ever.
5/
So, for once clicktivism is not a travesty. It's easy, and it could have a big impact. At a minimum you are giving pro-human rights MEPs ammo to demand a public debate on why we are in business with Israel, and, more in general, what price "being in business" comes with, and for whom.
6/
Many of us, myself included, feel powerless in the face of geopolitical tides. As small as it is, this ECI, I feel, gives us a chance to weigh in and improve the very poor state of the public debate on these issues.
So, my recommendation to you is: sign it, if you are a EU citizen and you agree with it. Fight it if you disagree. Both will be better than just passively trusting the diplomats.
Also gives us something to do as we wait for the next doomsday deadline anyway. Hang in there!
7/end
(sorry for deleting and re-posting, I had inadvertently broken the thread. Meh)
Uckermark MacGyver 
@alberto_cottica Dang, for me the signing with my eID doesn't seem to work. Reports an invalid URL. I'll try again from Germany when I'm back from vacation
@alberto_cottica Nah, got it working. I was missing the Ausweis App. That had been swapped out from my phone.
@maxheadroom well done!
Caz Mockett@alberto_cottica I would sign it if I could but sadly I live in the UK 😭
@cazmockett sadly indeed! Well, Westminster has its own petition site, so hopefully....
Petra van Cronenburg@alberto_cottica An official petition on a state's own platform or directly to the EU is never clicktivism, it's a democracy instrument for citizens like elections.
Clicktivism are petitions on the big tracking platforms that bind nobody and can even be filled with false names.
And thanks for the link!
@NatureMC I stand corrected, Petra. Wanted to catch the feeling of pointlessness that can seize us (me, at least) when signing yet another appeal/petition.
@alberto_cottica I understand very well what you mean.
Perhaps it depends also on the perspective. I'm living in France where many good regulations started with petitions only, like the anti-food-waste or plastic laws.
These campaigns were a lot of work in the background over years.But at the moment when an official government entity has to react, the idea gets drive ... and media.
It often helps me to accept that change needs time but my signature is quickly made - and I'm not alone.
Perhaps it depends also on the perspective. I'm living in France where many good regulations started with petitions only, like the anti-food-waste or plastic laws.
These campaigns were a lot of work in the background over years.But at the moment when an official government entity has to react, the idea gets drive ... and media.
It often helps me to accept that change needs time but my signature is quickly made - and I'm not alone.
magnus (he/him)@alberto_cottica I just signed it. It was easy and quick
@magnus well done Magnus! Yes, it is integrated with the various national eIDs, which are all eIDAS-compliant. Benefits of standardization finally hitting our everyday lives!
kaika1975It's good to know but they recolt a lot of personal data such at the specific addressee :(
@kaika1975 indeed. This is because this is an "official" signature, that you need to back with eID or ID to show that (a) you exist, (b) you are an EU citizen with the right to sign, and (c) you did not sign multiple times. Necessary evil I'm afraid.
Magnus Ahltorp@kaika1975 @alberto_cottica Yes, that’s a problem. They have to be able to identify that it is a citizen and that people only sign once. That unfortunately means that each country goes through the signatures from their country (after the proposal time is up) and can potentially repress people who have signed. Even if that would never happen, the fear is enough in itself.
@ahltorp just so. The good news is that those for us who are privileged enough to not worry about being repressed can pick up some slack for the others: the legal and political effect of an ECI is independent from the precise distribution of the signatures, as long as the minimum conditions are met.
1/2
Politically, it is of course good if many, or most, countries have a large number of supporters. And that the absolute number is large: not just 1,000,001 (with the risk that some signature would be invalidated in the checking phase), I would push for 3 or 4 million in this case.
2/end
@alberto_cottica @kaika1975 Exactly, it makes it very important for us to sign.
Boudhttps://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/how-it-works/faq_en
"The Commission sends the signatures collected using its online collection system to the Member States via its file exchange service."
As @alberto_cottica says, "those [of] us who are privileged enough to not worry about being repressed can pick up some slack for the others".
And bureaucratic errors could lead to some wrong deletions, although you should store your hash string ("Signature identifier") for checking later in the "confirmed" list.
Juho Mäntysalo@ahltorp @kaika1975 @alberto_cottica
An understandable fear. A few months ago a Finnish newspaper went through the signatories in a few state initiatives¹ that were fascist adjacent. Ban workers' unions, etc. A lot of famous names: CEOs and the like.
Soon after the far-right government of ours started discussing hiding the names from public.
_
¹ Also official: 50k names and parliament has to discuss it. The names are collected either online or offline. They're public for historical reasons.
Toni Aittoniemi@gimulnautti well done Toni!
@iju thank you, rather, for being part of it!