Making a difference for democracy

2022 was the year that brought European Capital of Democracy to life, building an international network of political innovators and democracy defenders across all Council of Europe member states. Find out who made this possible.

We are all excited and eager to welcome this next year with bright eyes focused on the future of ECoD. We, however, would love to encourage some moments of reflection — to look back on what the European Capital of Democracy has done as an organisation and as a community dedicated to supporting and defending democracy.

This year, we truly have been asking a lot from existing and potential partners. We joined forces with dozens of organisations to invite cities to compete for the title of European Capital of Democracy. 13 cities from seven countries joined our City Network in our first year, sharing inspiring projects and actively exchanging on future possibilities.

With Civocracy’s support, we started reaching out to our friends and professional network to announce and prepare our Citizens’ Jury, a network of up to 10,000 Europeans from all Council of Europe member states, destined to select the first European Capital of Democracy from a shortlist of three outstanding contenders: Barcelona, Braga and Brussels.

Together with our partner Alliance4Europe, we launched a fully-fledged recruiting campaign to find and select the first several thousand members of the Citizens’ Jury. We reached out to hundreds of organisations, building partnerships and forging alliances across many of the 46 countries.

Rechnerherz has developed the Citizens’ Jury selection tool with us, while Participation Factory helps us to choose and setup the right platform(s) and tools for future collaboration and exchange.

Finally, we have invited many of those friends and partners to start collecting ideas and contributing possible formats for the Programme Year of the first European Capital of Democracy, opening its doors on 15 September 2023 in the designated city.

Now is the time to say: Thank you! Without your help and support, nothing of this would have been possible. To us, it showed that the idea of creating a roof for the great many people and projects out there is a strong and convincing one.

By supporting ECoD, you are empowering a new era of democracy defenders who want to come together and join forces to pave the way for a brighter, safer, and more sustainable future for Europe. And there is more to come next year.

2023, we will have our first ever European Capital of Democracy!

Your continued belief in our work means even more people will have the opportunity to connect with our initiative of strengthening European democracy and become agents for change in their communities. So whether you’ve just joined or been with us from the start, we are ever grateful for your role in our initiative.

We will also join forces with JEF Europe – Young European Federalists “Democracy under pressure” campaign in March – watch out for an update on this topic late January!

On behalf of the entire team, thank you for your ongoing support, and let’s make 2023 a great and remarkable year for European Democracy!

2022 was the year that brought European Capital of Democracy to life, building an international network of political innovators and democracy defenders across all Council of Europe member states. Find out who made this possible.

Sending a big THANK YOUfor supporting democracy to:

Sending a big THANK YOU
for supporting democracy to: