This would knock out one favorite object of citizen outrage  the costly pilgrimage the European Parliament must make to work in Strasbourg, France, for one week every month. The price tag on that is estimated at more than $250 million a year, but it is written into the governing treaty, as a concession to the French. Advocates say all the requirements would prove too much for any ideas from the average citizen.

“What we fear,” said Carsten Berg, who coordinates a group campaigning for the citizens’ initiative, “is that only the big, well-funded organizations will be able to use it.”

Maros Sefcovic, a vice president of the European Commission responsible for the initiative, said the union was looking for the right balance in its regulations. He does not want “to overdo it with too strict “ procedures. But he also believes it is important to stop abusive campaigns or ideas that are “frivolous or devoid of seriousness.”

Image Martin Kastler, a European Parliament member, and his family. He wants a law barring shops all across Europe from opening on Sundays. Credit... Christof Stache for The New York Times

Under the draft rules, organizers would have to begin the process by registering their petition. Then, they would have to collect some number of signatures before they even got a reading from the commission about whether the subject fell within the scope of what was allowed. Initially, the idea was that 300,000 names would be needed; the latest draft has cut this by two-thirds.

In some countries, those signing would have to give their passport or national identity card numbers to help prevent fraud  another requirement that has prompted many objections because few citizens would be willing to give that information to someone collecting signatures on a street corner, for instance.

The final step is to amass the one million signatures. At that point, the commission would be obligated to propose legislation or give a reason why not within four months. Alain Lamassoure, a French member of the European Parliament who fought to include the initiative in the Lisbon Treaty, said many of the proposed restrictions were reasonable, though some fine-tuning might be needed.