EPD | European Partnership for Democracy

Learning from the Past to Re-code a Future for Democracy

The EPD Annual Conference 2025 gathered some of the most insightful minds on democracy and politics to take stock of the lessons learned from the past and gather ideas for rebooting democracy support together.

Here our main takeaways
Global Youth Participation Index

The Future of Democracy Is in Young Hands

A tool connecting the dots between global data and the lived realities behind the numbers, offering a powerful insight into youth political participation across the world.

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The Digital Democracy Watch

The key dates, deadlines and upcoming events of EU digital rights files through EPD’s expert analysis.

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A New Phase of Civic Movements

Implications for International Democracy Support

A Democracy Deep Dive examining the implications of the new phase of intense informal civic activism for democracy and democracy-support strategies.

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Thinking, Advocating, Acting.

Research

We engage in research on the most pressing challenges and opportunities for democracies worldwide.

Policy

We work towards better public policies to support democracy in Europe and around the world.

Programmes

We bring together the expertise of specialists, combining various sectors of democracy support for impactful programmes.

Latest news

14 October 2025 | Commentary

A Regulation Without a Market: How can the EU’s Political Ads Regulation Still be Relevant?

When the European Union first proposed a standalone Regulation on the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA), expectations were high: the initiative was meant to demonstrate the EU’s commitment to protecting democracy in the digital age and addressing specific risks to electoral integrity. As the Regulation enters into application on 10 October 2025, its prospects appear shaky.

07 October 2025 | Recommendations

Safeguarding Civic Space: Recommendations for an EU Civil Society Strategy

Across the globe, civic space is under pressure. This trend not only limits citizens’ ability to exercise fundamental rights but also erodes accountability and weakens democracy. The forthcoming EU Civil Society Strategy offers a crucial opportunity. To ensure that civil society can thrive as a watchdog, partner, and innovator, the EU must move beyond piecemeal support and mainstream civic space protection across all internal and external policies, while also supporting the wider enabling environment for civil society.

03 September 2025 | Commentary

Democracy and Electoral Processes: a Missed Opportunity for the EU General-Purpose AI Code of Practice?

The recently published EU Code of Practice on General-Purpose AI offers little clarification or additional guidance on preventing and mitigating AI risks for electoral processes. While we welcome the explicit reference to “democratic processes” and “harmful manipulation” in the final version of the Code as an essential starting point, the current framing remains too vague to capture the depth and complexity of risks that GPAI poses to democracy.

Our members

The most important thing about EPD is in our name. We are a partnership bringing together 19 specialist organisations to support democracy.

Our overarching objective as EPD is to contribute to setting a comprehensive and effective agenda for democracy support around the world. For the 2023-2026 period, we identified five priorities to this end. Within each of these five priority areas, we conduct research, work on public policies and implement projects.

International policy

We advocate for strong pro-democracy policies and use evidence from our research and projects to improve the links between policy and practice.

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Innovation

We explore democratic innovations worldwide and link them to democratic renewal through policy recommendations and participation initiatives.

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Inclusion

To ensure fair and effective decision-making processes, we contribute to amplifying the voices of young people, women, minorities and people with disabilities.

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Institutions

We work for resilient and accountable institutions that guarantee free and fair elections, oversight of decision-making and the decentralisation of national powers.

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Information space

We research and act to tackle the most pressing challenges in the information space, supporting media pluralism and the right to freedom of expression.

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