Ten Ideas to Regenerate Democracy

What would it take to regenerate democracy? Around the world, democracies are struggling to respond to increasing levels of disinformation, polarisation, erosion of political norms, lack of media plurality and even full-blown democratic backsliding, including the undermining of civil rights and rule of law. Debating Europe, the citizens platform of Friends of Europe, recognises that meeting these challenges must be a bottom-up exercise, drawing on the voices and ideas of citizens.

In partnership with Fondazione Cariplo, Debating Europe organised a series of online focus groups with 40 young Europeans to discuss ways to regenerate European democracy. The citizens’ ‘Ten Ideas to Regenerate Democracy’ were compiled and then discussed and debated with the European Young Leaders (EYL40) network at a seminar held in Lisbon in September 2022. The EYL40 seminar is a biannual event gathering together Friends of Europe’s network of promising young entrepreneurs, activists, politicians, artists and thought leaders in discussion about the future of Europe.

This report synthesises the citizen-generated ideas in the online focus groups with the comments and reactions from European Young Leaders. We hope the ideas presented will help support the ongoing dialogue about new varieties of democracy.

Download the report as a PDF here.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.