The Right2Water European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is the first to ECI to have collected enough signatures in enough member states to trigger a reaction from the EU institutions. Launched by the European Public Services Union, long engaged alongside the Water Movement in promoting the human right to access to water and sanitation, this ECI saw the public services trade unions across the EU mobilise to collect signatures. With the perceived push to privatisation that accompanied the passage of the Concessions Directive and conditions linked to bailout packages and the austerity agenda, however, wide support also came from movement groups in the member states. Not only do these organisational links show the blurring of the line between interest groups and movements in this case, a frame analysis of the argumentation that underpinned the ECI also shows a clear discursive continuity with the major preoccupations of the movement against austerity.
