Image: Yle

After a pair of popular bills, enthusiasm towards citizens' initiatives, which became legal in March 2012, seems to have declined.

The Open Ministry, a non-profit website, which helps with the facilitating and gathering of supporters for bills, says that activity has dropped from earlier this year, when two high profile bills were frequently in the headlines.

The first ever bill drafted by a civic movement, a proposed ban on fur farming, was brought before and rejected by the national legislature in June.

The other well-publicized proposal, calling for the legalization of same-sex marriage, was launched in March and Parliament is expected to consider the bill later this year.

Gay marriage was previously narrowly blocked at committee stage and never made it to the floor for debate and voting. The citizen's initiative, aimed at taking the bill back to Parliament, gathered more than the 50,000 needed signatures within hours of going public.

The Open Ministry says that people might be waiting for a result in that case before drafting or signing initiatives for new bills.