Democracy Summit 2025 – A Year-Long European Journey on Democracy, Trust & the Future of Civic Participation

In 2025, our Debating Europe reimagined the concept of a “Democracy Summit.” Rather than hosting a one-off gathering in Brussels, we delivered a year-long, multi-city engagement process, embedding our work directly into key policy debates across Europe. As political developments accelerated and new democratic challenges emerged, we strategically positioned the “Summit” as a distributed series of high-level interventions—bringing our expertise to where conversations were already shaping Europe’s future. Throughout the year, our team engaged with over 150 policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and youth delegates across three major European democratic fora: Piacenza, Athens, and Strasbourg.

This pan-European approach allowed us to reach broader audiences, diversify the voices involved, and align our work with the evolving policy agenda at national, EU, and multilateral levels.

1. Festival del Pensare Contemporaneo – Focus on: Democracy & the Future of Work

Low wages, AI, and intergenerational solidarity
14 September 2025 – Laboratorio Aperto (Ex Carmine), Piacenza, Italy

Our contribution to this major Italian debate explored one of democracy’s most urgent questions: how do economic insecurity, algorithmic management, and intergenerational tensions reshape citizens’ trust in institutions?

Moderated by Alessandra Cardaci, the session brought together leading voices — Alessandra Ingrao, Andrea Garnero, Francesca Coin, and Luca Bolognini — to unpack the structural fractures in today’s labour markets:

• stagnant wages and precarious careers,
• opaque algorithmic decision-making,
• the societal cost of productivity-driven work cultures,
• and the risks of AI accelerating exploitation instead of empowering workers.

This conversation directly informed our Summit’s focus on economic fairness, algorithmic transparency, and the democratic implications of AI-driven workplaces.

2. Athens Democracy Forum – Focus on: Democracy & Europe’s Ageing Challenge

1 October 2025 – Keynote Contribution, Athens, Greece

At the Athens Democracy Forum, we addressed what may be Europe’s next major democratic stress test: ageing societies.
By 2050, Europe will have 60 million more pensioners supported by a shrinking workforce — an imbalance with profound consequences for social cohesion and democratic stability.

We highlighted how widening generational inequalities — from wealth concentration and labour insecurity to housing accessibility — are fuelling a crisis of trust among younger Europeans.

Our contribution set the foundations for the next iteration of our citizen-engagement initiative “Voices for Choices”, which will:

• listen to citizens through surveys and focus groups,
• bring public concerns directly to policymakers,
• and equip young people with the skills needed to navigate long-term socioeconomic change.

This intervention reinforced the Summit’s emphasis on intergenerational justice and youth trust in democracy.

3. World Forum for Democracy – AI, Integrity & the Democratic Public Sphere

Ideas Session 3: AI and Democracy
6 November 2025 – Palais de l’Europe, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France
In cooperation with the Council of Europe’s Committee on Artificial Intelligence

Our final Summit engagement took place at the World Forum for Democracy, where we co-organised a session examining the democratic consequences of artificial intelligence.

With contributions from academics, policymakers, innovators, and youth delegates, the session explored:

• how AI affects public decision-making,
• opportunities for transparency, participation, and civic empowerment,
• and the safeguards needed to uphold integrity, trust, and accountability in democratic systems.

This multilateral platform allowed us to integrate youth perspectives, test emerging ideas, and present innovative initiatives to a global audience.

A Summit That Travelled Europe

Across these three cities, Deabating Europe created a mobile, adaptive, and future-oriented Democracy Summit.
This distributed format ensured that debates on work, ageing, inequality, and AI were connected to the lived experience of citizens across Europe – while maintaining high-level access to policymakers and institutions.

Our 2025 Democracy Summit:

• reached diverse publics across three countries,
• engaged over 150 high-level experts and participants,
• aligned directly with political and policy developments,
• and strengthened our mission to bring citizens’ voices to the heart of European democracy.

Looking Ahead

Building on this year’s model, we will continue to explore new, decentralised approaches to citizen engagement – creating spaces where emerging challenges can be debated openly, and where citizens’ perspectives help shape the policies that will define Europe’s future.

Co-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.