In a not so surprising move, the European Commission has formally refused to register the anti-immigration ‘Save Europe Act’ as a European Citizens’ Initiative, meaning its organisers cannot begin collecting the one million validated signatures required to put the proposal formally before Brussels. The Commission argues that the proposal is incompatible with the European Union’s “fundamental values” and anti-discrimination rules.

Dutch right-wing activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek, one of the campaign organisers, called the decision unacceptable and said the campaign would challenge the decision in court.

The Save Europe Act campaign, led by Vlaardingerbroek and Austrian identitarian activist Martin Sellner, has attracted significant support across Europe, with almost 600,000 signatures.

The Act’s main demands are a halt to non-European immigration—both legal and illegal—and the creation of a Europe-wide remigration system. The charter also calls for the removal of “social welfare incentives and benefits that function as pull factors for migration.”

Under the rules governing European Citizens’ Initiatives, campaigns must collect at least one million validated signatures from citizens across a minimum of seven EU member states before the Commission is required to consider them.

However, the Commission announced on Wednesday, July 22nd that the call for a temporary moratorium on new non-Western immigration channels, based on protecting the ethnic and cultural continuity of Europe’s native peoples, would constitute discrimination on the grounds of race and ethnic origin.

It said the proposed criteria would be “manifestly contrary” to the “values” set out in the Treaties of the European Union and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Responding to the Commission’s decision, Vlaardingerbroek accused Brussels of attempting to silence hundreds of thousands of Europeans. She announced that the organisers will take legal action against the Commission and continue gathering signatures.

With the Save Europe Act, we have asked for a halt on non-Western immigration. Now, the European Commission is saying that that is racist and that it goes against the non-discrimination principle. And that’s not all. They are also saying that wanting to preserve your national identity can only happen within the framework of European values. And who gets to decide what those European values are? Well, apparently, the Commission does.

Several politicians from the Patriots for Europe political family also condemned the Commission’s decision. Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) MEP Petra Steger described the rejection as hypocritical: “When Brussels obstructs democratic citizens’ initiatives simply because it doesn’t like the demands, it’s no longer about values—it’s only about their reckless ideology.”

Spanish VOX MEP Hermann Tertsch accused Brussels of applying ideological double standards: “The European Commission only recognizes the NGOs of the far left, associations supporting immigrant traffickers, Greta-style eco-fanatic lunatics, and franchises of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Brussels’ hostile attitude to the Save Europe Act was on full display last week, when the Mayor of Brussels attempted to ban a rally organised by the campaigners outside the European Parliament. The organisers successfully overturned the decision in court and symbolically delivered more than half a million signatures to Parliament.

Zoltán Kottász, European Conservative