Take part

Start in ten minutes

These are unpaid volunteer contributions and organiser roles. This invitation offers no payment or expense reimbursement.

1. Read the brief and current status.
2. Email hello@ownthemachine.eu with what you could help with, the time you could offer and one question. If you are considering a formal organiser role, add your EU country of residence. No identity documents are needed now.
3. Agree a short conversation and one small first task: checking a source, reviewing a paragraph or testing the website's accessibility.

You do not need to read the whole book or Regulation before getting in touch. An introduction does not commit you to filing or endorsing every article. Contributing and becoming a statutory organiser are separate decisions.

Where this actually stands

As of 6 September 2026, no version has been filed or registered with the Commission and no statements of support are being collected. Check the versions page for the registration record. Organiser recruitment is under way; interest does not mean the statutory group is already constituted.

The ECI Forum supplied independent, non-binding advice on 27 August, and an ECI veteran responded on 5 September. The public record includes the questions raised and the project's responses. This is external feedback, not approval by the Commission. The project still needs independent scrutiny and people willing to take responsibility for its next stage.

Ways to help

Question the proposal. Read the draft and raise a specific objection. Public issues and pull requests make the discussion available to everyone. Private questions are welcome too.

Help organise. Express interest in the founding group, native-language review, explaining the proposal or practical coordination. You do not need to be a programmer or agree with every article to start a conversation.

Connect an organisation. Introductions, independent review and concrete commitments of time or publication support can help establish whether a campaign is feasible. An introduction does not imply an endorsement.

What being an organiser means

The statutory group needs at least seven EU citizens old enough to vote in European Parliament elections and living in at least seven different Member States. Seven different nationalities are not required. MEPs do not count towards the minimum. The group appoints a representative and substitute; organisers' names are published in the Commission's register. The official rules govern eligibility and responsibilities.

Expressing interest now is not agreeing to file. Before committing, the group must agree its objectives, responsibilities, funding arrangements and remaining legal risks. The published gates still apply. Signing a registered initiative would support its registered objectives; the detailed Regulation is an illustrative mechanism, not an already adopted law.

How to get in touch

Write to hello@ownthemachine.eu, or open a public issue if you prefer a public discussion. Both routes are welcome. For an organiser enquiry, it helps to state your Member State of residence, what you could contribute and your questions. No identity document is needed to express interest, and none should be posted in a public issue.

What happens to what you send

A GitHub issue is public. An email to hello@ownthemachine.eu is forwarded by Forward Email, a US provider, to the personal Gmail inboxes of two project contacts. The separate organisers@ownthemachine.eu address forwards to the initiator’s personal Gmail inbox. Your message is used to respond to your enquiry. Beyond this routing, we do not share or publish your enquiry without your agreement. There is no mailing list or donation form. Contact is used to answer the enquiry, not to send unsolicited campaign messages. See about for the controller and your rights. Any later change to these arrangements must be explained before it takes effect.

For contributor enquiries, the initiator keeps a private intake note on their local computer: contact details, the date of your enquiry, any residence voluntarily provided, the agreed task and time, its owner, next action, status and permission to share an introduction. Inactive intake notes are reviewed after 90 days; details no longer needed are deleted unless continued contact is agreed or another retention need has been explained. Copies in these Gmail inboxes are separate from the private intake notes stored on the initiator’s local computer, outside the public repository. The 90-day review of inactive intake notes does not automatically delete email copies from Gmail.