Conference report: Key Findings of the Brussels Democracy Dialogue 2025

Building a Progressive Vision for a Resilient and Responsive Democracy in the 21st Century

On 14 October, policymakers, researchers, trade unionists and civil society representatives gathered for the Brussels Democracy Dialogue 2025 to discuss how to counter the rise of illiberal right-wing forces and to revitalise European democracy. 

With democratic institutions across the continent and beyond being increasingly under strain, the support and engagement of citizens is more vital than ever. Or, as author Julian Plottka quotes Friedrich Ebert himself: “Democracy needs democrats”. Citizens who participate, trust institutions and are willing to defend them.

To achieve this, the conference participants identified four sets of recommendations: 

1. Democrats need to better strategise and make full use of the instruments at their disposal to fight against right-wing populists and anti-democrats. 
2. Democracies need to be responsive to citizens’ demands, but concrete results must be embedded in a wider progressive project for the 21st century to win the culture war against right-wing populists and anti-democrats. 
3. The EU needs to scale up its defence against foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) and address the structural dimension (regulation of very large online platforms) and emotional dimension of FIMI.
4. Democrats need to revitalise democracies and offer a positive vision for civic engagement instead of merely defending the functioning democracies of the past. 

Read our full report to gain more insights into today’s democratic challenges and the practical steps needed to meet them.

We will soon publish a new series of Brussels Democracy Papers, inspired by the recent conference discussions – stay tuned! Until then, we invite you to also explore the previous Brussels Democracy Papers and read our conference speaker Rachel Beatty Riedl’s call for reinventing democracy in a recent article for the IPS Journal.