Citizens iniatives may be a form of petition, but the difference is they come with actual legal requirements.

This isn’t some change.org bs, a list of names totaling some arbitrary number.

This is a pre-existing system for the people of the EU to force it to tackle an issue. Most EU countries have equivalent systems locally, as well. This isn’t new or unusual for us.

Legal precedent is how the US works. Where lawsuits catalyzing the setting of new standards for what is legal, is most common way the law changes.

That can happen in the EU, too, but we have additional ways to propose law as citizens. If you can gather proof (signatures) of concern on a given issue, the government must address it.