Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

General questions

What is an e-petition?
An e-petition is a form of petition posted on a website. Individuals or groups can create a petition on the site and visitors can add their details to the petition to "sign" it. The format makes it easy to collect signatures, and it also makes it easier for the administrator to respond directly using email.

What's the difference between an e-petition and a paper petition?
There is no theoretical difference, only the way in which the signatures are collected and delivered. A petition can gather names and addresses in either or both forms, though once someone has signed a petition in one format, they cannot sign it in another.

What can petitions achieve?
Petitions are one of the modern democratic ways to express your opinion in a mass and collective way and can have positive outcomes that lead to change. It is clear that the power of the petitions is based on the extent of participation so that the appropriate officers will take them into consideration.

How do I get in touch with the team behind the website?
If you have any comments on the functioning of the petitions system, please contact: …. (appropriate e-mail address to be provided in the web-site)

Petition signing questions

Who can sign a petition?
In eMPOWER project any interested party (citizen, NGO, decision maker) has the right to sign a petition.

How do I sign a petition?
To sign a petition, you will need to give your name, country, email and address on the form provided. Once you have signed the petition, you will receive an email asking you to confirm that you wish to add your name to the petition by clicking a link. Once you have done this, your name will be added to the petition (note: this information can slightly vary, as per the specific legislation in each country).

What will you do with my name and address details if I sign a petition?
Nothing, unless you expressly ask to sign up for other services available on the eMPOWER website (e.g. newsletters, event alerts). We will use your email address to confirm your signature and, unless you ask us not to, we will also send you a maximum of two responses to the issues raised in the petition. In the future we may introduce a facility to enable the creator of the petition to send you a maximum of two emails as well. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

More than one person shares my email address — can we sign the petition?
There is a trade-off to be made between allowing anyone to sign the petitions regardless of having an email address, and protecting the petitions from too much abuse. We have come down on the side of using one email address per person to act as an anti-abuse mechanism because it is now possible for anyone to get an email address for free in a few moments. On the converse, if we let people use one address to sign multiple times we will likely see considerable fake signatures almost straight away.

Why not "sign against" petitions?
Many people have suggested changes to the e-petitions service during this test phase, and a number of improvements have been made as a result.
One of the most popular proposals has been the creation of a 'sign against' mechanism, which would allow users to disagree with petitions. We have decided not to add this function.
The rationale is this: "e-petitions" is designed essentially as a modern equivalent of the traditional petitions presented to the Decision Makers. It is not intended to be a form of quasi-referendum or unrepresentative opinion poll (professional polls use special techniques to ensure balanced samples). With a "vote against" function, that is what it would effectively become.
It is of course possible to create a counter-petition to an existing campaign (as many people already have). This remains the best option if you disagree with a particular petition.

Petition creation questions

What are the main fields of interest of the petitions?
The eMPOWER project deals with environmental issues concerning mainly the three Mediterranean countries taking part in our project, Greece, Italy and Portugal. For this reason requests for petitions irrelevant to the environment will be rejected.

How do I start an e-petition?
You can start a petition using our e-petition form. You will be asked to provide some basic information about yourself and your petition (duration, goal of signatures, potential recipients, reasons explaining the importance of the petition, additional supportive material, etc).

What happens after the submission of my request for a petition?
The submitted request for petition will be evaluated by the Petition Administrator, in co-operation with the Petition Examination and Approval Committee and the outcome will be announced to the creator, accompanied with a formal explanation in case of a rejection. There might be a case, where the creator will be requested to submit some extra documentation to support his/her petition. We aim to make your petition live on the website within five working days, although during busy periods it may take longer.

What happens if my petition is rejected?
If your petition does not meet these criteria, we will send it back to you along with an explanation of the reason(s) for rejection. We will give you the option of altering and resubmitting the petition.
If you decide not to resubmit your petition, or if your second iteration is also rejected, we will list your petition and the reason(s) for not accepting it on this website.

Do you accept all petitions?
We aim to accept as many petitions as possible. As mentioned before, all the petitions meeting the required standards are examined by the Petition Examination and Approval Committee and, if approved, it is published online intending to attract as many signatures as possible.

How long will my petition run for?
You can propose how long your petition can run for and the Petition Examination and Approval Committee accept that or decide a different time-frame.

What will happen to my petition once it is finished?
Once your petition has closed, hopefully fulfilled the signatures goal, it will be finally checked for duplicates or other mistakes by the Committee and it will be passed to the appropriate recipients.
In case the required number of signatures will not be collected, each case will be separately evaluated in order to be decided whether the collected signatures of this petition will be exploited or not.

How Ι will be informed on the petition outcome?
We will provide detailed feedback through the eMPOWER e-Petitioning platform.