The right to petition
This fact sheet outlines the right to petition in the EU, including its legal basis, objectives, eligibility criteria and procedures. It explains how petitions are submitted and examined, the role of the European Parliament and its Committee on Petitions in handling them, and the main follow-up actions available. It also highlights the importance of petitions as a tool for participatory democracy and for monitoring the application of EU law.
Legal basis
- Article 20, Article 24 and Article 227 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which establish the rights of EU citizens, including the right to petition (first established by the Treaty of Maastricht);
- Article 44 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which also establishes the right to petition.
Objectives
The right to petition aims to:
- Provide EU citizens and residents with a direct and accessible channel to raise concerns, request action, or lodge complaints with the EU institutions;
- Enable individuals to contribute to the scrutiny of EU law and policy implementation.
Procedure and the handling of petitions
A. Eligibility and requirements (Article 227 TFEU)
The right to petition is open to any EU citizen and any natural or legal person resident or having a registered office in a Member State, either individually or in association with others.
In order to be admissible, petitions must concern matters which fall within the EU’s fields of activity and affect the petitioners directly. The latter condition is interpreted very broadly.
B. Procedure
The procedure for dealing with petitions is laid down in Rules 226 to 230 of, and Annex VI (XX) to, Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, which confer responsibility on the Committee on Petitions.
1. Formal requirements
Petitions must state the name, nationality and address of each petitioner and be written in one of the official EU languages. They can be submitted either electronically through the Parliament’s Petition Web Portal or by post.
2. Material admissibility
Petitions that meet these formal requirements are referred to the Committee on Petitions, which must first decide whether they are admissible. The Committee does this by ascertaining that the subject falls within the EU’s fields of activity. Where this is not the case, the petition is declared inadmissible. The petitioner is informed of this and of the reasons for the decision. Petitioners are often encouraged to contact another national, EU or international body. The main reason why petitions are declared inadmissible is because petitioners confuse EU competences, responsibilities and possibilities for action and redress with those of Member States and other international organisations and bodies (such as the UN and the Council of Europe), including in relation to the applicability of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
3. Examination of petitions
Depending on the circumstances, the Committee on Petitions may take one or more of the following actions:
- Ask the Commission to conduct a preliminary investigation on a petition and provide information regarding compliance with relevant EU legislation;
- Refer the petition to other Parliament committees for information or further action (a committee might, for example, provide the Committee on Petitions with an opinion or discuss or take account of a petition in its legislative, policy or scrutiny activities);
- If the petition concerns a specific case requiring individual attention, the Committee may contact the appropriate institutions or authorities or intervene through the permanent representation of the Member State concerned to settle the matter;
- Take any other action considered appropriate to try to resolve the issue or deliver a suitable response to the petition.
The Committee also decides whether to place petitions on its meeting agenda. In this case, the petitioner, the Commission and Member State representatives are invited. At this meeting, the petitioners – if they so wish – present their petition. The Commission would then give its opinion orally and comment on its written response to the issues raised in the petition. Representatives of the Member States concerned may also be invited to take the floor. Members of the Committee on Petitions then have the opportunity to exchange views on the issues raised during the debate and to propose further actions to be taken.
In specific cases, the Committee may decide to hold a hearing or a workshop, conduct a fact-finding visit to the country or region concerned, adopt a mission report setting out its observations and recommendations, or prepare and submit a full report or a short motion for a resolution to be voted on by Parliament in plenary. It may also decide to submit oral questions to the Commission and/or the Council and to hold a debate in plenary.
If a petition relates to a matter of general interest that reveals incorrect transposition or application of EU law, it may prompt the Commission to take action with the Member State in question, including through infringement proceedings.
4. Closure
A petition may be closed by the Committee at various stages of the procedure, such as after a decision on admissibility has been taken by the Committee, after a discussion in a Committee meeting, if no further action can be taken on the petition, if a petition is withdrawn by the petitioner, or if the petitioner does not respond within a given deadline to a request for further information.
5. Transparency
Petitions submitted to Parliament become public documents. Summaries of petitions are published in all the official EU languages on Parliament’s Petitions Web Portal after a decision on admissibility has been taken by the Committee on Petitions, together with other relevant documents.
Petitioners are informed in writing of all Committee decisions concerning their petition and of the reasons for those decisions, and are provided with relevant information and documentation where appropriate once the decisions become available.
Role of the European Parliament
According to the Treaties, Parliament is the addressee of petitions, and therefore has the responsibility of ensuring that the concerns expressed in those petitions are fully taken into account in the EU. To do so in the best possible way, it has given a dedicated committee, the Committee on Petitions, the task of dealing with petitions and coordinating the institution’s follow-up activities.
As highlighted in its annual reports on the deliberations of the Committee in the preceding year, Parliament has consistently considered petitions to be a key element of participatory democracy. These reports provide detailed information on the number of petitions received, their format, status, outcome, country, language, nationality and subject, as well as information on the web portal, relations with the Commission, Council and Ombudsman, fact-finding visits, public hearings, commissioned studies and other key issues. Parliament has also underlined their importance in revealing instances of incorrect transposition and implementation of EU law by Member States. In fact, a number of petitions have led to legislative or political action, EU pilot cases, preliminary rulings or infringement proceedings.
The Committee on Petitions is particularly active in the fields of fundamental rights (including children’s rights, discrimination, the rights of minorities, justice, free movement, voting rights and Brexit), the environment and animal welfare, the internal market, social rights, migration, trade agreements and public health. The Committee notably plays a special role in protecting the rights of persons with disabilities within the EU Framework for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and also organises an annual workshop on disabilities-related issues, held each December.
A number of instruments are available for ensuring that issues raised in petitions are addressed and resolved: fact-finding visits, public hearings, workshops and the commissioning of studies. Another instrument is the Petitions Network, which was established in 2016 to ensure greater cooperation with the other committees in relation to petitions, as well as cooperation and dialogue with national parliaments and authorities and with other EU institutions, in particular the Commission and the European Ombudsman.
In 2014, Parliament also launched the Petitions Web Portal, which has improved the visibility and transparency of petitions. The portal also provides information on alternative ways for EU citizens to seek redress or raise concerns at EU level, including tools such as the European Citizens’ Initiative, SOLVIT, the European Ombudsman and the Commission’s ‘Have your say’ platform.
During the 2024-2029 term, petitions mainly concerned the following areas: the environment; health; fundamental rights, democracy and enforcement of EU law; equality and diversity; disability; working conditions; small and medium-sized enterprises; and transport and free movement. In 2025, Parliament received 2 971 petitions, and the number of incoming petitions continues to rise.
This fact sheet is prepared by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens, Equality and Culture. For more information, please visit the website of the Committee on Petitions.
Katharina VINSON