Julian Plottka is research associate at the Institut für Europäische Politik in Berlin, assistant to the chief editor of the academic quarterly integration and programme manager of the international master programme ‘Studies on the EU and Central Asia in the International System’. He has studied political science at the University of Potsdam, the University of Bergen and the Free University Berlin. In his research, he focuses on democratic legitimacy of the EU, especially on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI).