The European Commission has refused to register the Save Europe Act as a European Citizens’ Initiative, ruling that its proposed moratorium on non-Western immigration would constitute discrimination based on race and ethnic origin.

The campaign, which had gathered 593,739 signatures at the time of writing, called for a temporary halt to new non-European immigration channels while the EU migration and asylum system was fundamentally reformed.

Its organizers accused Brussels of excluding opposition to mass immigration from legitimate democratic debate and announced plans to challenge the decision in court.

The Save Europe Act proposed suspending study and family reunification visas for non-Europeans, restricting asylum applications from economic migrants and applicants from safe countries, strengthening external borders and accelerating deportations.

It also called for an EU-wide remigration framework, including voluntary financial incentives for migrants considered unintegrated or a serious cultural or financial burden, alongside restrictions on welfare benefits viewed as migration pull factors.

In its decision on Wednesday, the Commission said the initiative failed to meet the legal conditions required for registration.

It argued that the proposed moratorium was not based simply on migration-management criteria, but on the “ethnic, cultural, or civilizational origin” of the people concerned.

“The criteria on which the proposed moratorium would be based would constitute discrimination grounded on race and ethnic origin,” the Commission said.

Brussels said the proposal would exclude broadly defined groups without the individual, case-by-case assessment required under existing EU law. It concluded that the initiative was “manifestly contrary” to Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union and Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The Commission also rejected the organizers’ reliance on Article 4(2) of the treaty, which requires the EU to respect the national identities of member states.

According to the decision, national identity cannot be used to justify immigration restrictions that conflict with the bloc’s interpretation of fundamental rights.

The Save Europe Act argues that Europe’s native peoples have a right to preserve their national, cultural and demographic continuity. It claims that decades of legal and illegal migration have weakened social cohesion, strained public services and welfare systems, contributed to parallel societies and increased the risk of native populations becoming minorities in their own countries. On that basis, it calls for Europe to prioritize the security, sovereignty and long-term survival of its historic nations.

The European Commission rejected the registration of the @SaveEuropeAct.

They claim it’s “racist” and goes against “European values” to want to keep Europe, European.

We’re not accepting the madness anymore.

Europe belongs to us.

See you in court. pic.twitter.com/OoqE5W5xBw

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) July 22, 2026

Dutch commentator and campaign co-founder Eva Vlaardingerbroek said the Commission was attempting to disregard almost 600,000 supporters.

“They are trying to set aside the almost 600,000 European patriots who have already signed our Act and who want one thing and one thing only, and that is to save Europe and protect our national identities, protect our ethnocultural continuity,” she said.

Vlaardingerbroek accused the Commission of declaring that opposition to non-Western immigration was racist while reserving for itself the power to define European values.

“Who gets to decide what those European values are? Well, apparently the Commission does,” she said.

She argued that Brussels had effectively ruled that wanting to “keep Europe European” and prevent native populations from becoming minorities was incompatible with EU principles.

“That is unacceptable to us,” she said. “We will not allow the Commission to hide behind such vague principles that they seem to think they have the right to define.”

Vlaardingerbroek confirmed that the organizers would take the dispute to court and urged supporters to continue signing until the campaign reached one million names.

“This is no longer just an initiative,” she said. “This is a movement.”

The EU is an open-air prison with a death sentence to all European peoples.
We now have it black on white in their response to @SaveEuropeAct
– It is "racist" to want to stop non-Western immigration.
– It is "racist" to want to save our ethno-cultural continuity.

What do you… pic.twitter.com/OpAGZ0zHe0

— Martin Sellner (@MartinSellner_) July 22, 2026

Fellow founder Martin Sellner said the refusal was “a beginning, not an end,” claiming EU officials feared the campaign would easily reach the formal one-million-signature threshold.

“They know exactly that we would easily achieve the one million signatures because within just one and a half months we have achieved more than 500,000,” he said.

Sellner argued that the decision showed Brussels considered efforts to preserve Europe’s ethnocultural character inherently discriminatory.

“If you want to save our people, our cultural continuity, what makes France French and Germany German, then you are racist, and you’re not allowed to take part in democratic discourse and competition of ideas,” he said.

He said the campaign would pursue its legal challenge while building a broader Europe-wide activist network.