Skip to main content

  • The European Democracy Shield

    A First Step Toward Stronger Democratic Resilience

    The European Democracy Shield represents the EU’s umbrella agenda for democracy support for the duration of this commission’s mandate. Will it be up to its standards? 

    Read the analysis
  • ©Zabed Hasnain Chowdhury via Reuters Connect

    New Approaches to Defending Civil Society

    A menu of qualitative changes that might help protect a free and democratic civic space in this ever-more repressive period.

    Discover

  • 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.

    Explore
  • EU-AU Electoral Integrity Summit

    Citizen Election Observers in an Era of Global Autocratisation

    Under EPD’s project AHEAD Africa, we examine the increasingly threatened role of citizen election observers, while arguing that protecting and supporting citizen election observation must remain part of international efforts to promote democracy.

    Learn more
  • EU-AU Electoral Integrity Summit

    A Roadmap for Electoral Integrity in Africa

    EPD promotes the adoption of global standards for election integrity through the AHEAD Africa project.

    Learn more

    Thinking, Advocating, Acting.

    Latest news

    Our members

    The most important thing about EPD is in our name. We are a partnership bringing together 20 specialist organisations to support democracy.

    Explore the map

    Our focus areas

    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 six priorities to this end. Within each of these five priority areas, we conduct research, work on public policies and implement projects. 

    • Media Freedom and Pluralism in Europe

      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.
      Read more
    • Institutions

      Institutions

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

      Inclusion

      To ensure fair and effective decision-making processes, we contribute to amplifying the voices of young people, women, minorities and people with disabilities.
      Read more
    • New wesbite - 3 pillars(2)

      Innovation

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

      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.
      Read more

    • Infrastructure

      We will leverage our collective strength and work with partners across sectors to help retain a strong and more resilient infrastructure for supporting democracy in the future.
      Read more
      Urgent need for a long term approach to counter attacks against democracy in Georgia
      Beyond Ballots
      Your weekly democratic update

      Sign up for a weekly update on what counts for democracy!

      Subscribe to our newsletter

      You can unsubscribe anytime. For more details, review our Privacy Policy.

      Open positions

      Working for democracy provides an opportunity to contribute towards shaping fair, just, and equitable societies around the world. Our network of organisations, located at the heart of Europe, is dedicated to making a positive impact on individuals’ and communities’ freedoms and human rights through our programmes, research, and advocacy activities.