Democracy and the Rule of Law
Four think tanks have joined EFA24 as Reporting Partners, each tasked with a single goal: to summarize and reflect on the key issues within our main thematic tracks - Security, Finance & Economy, Climate and Democracy & the Rule of Law.
Our reporting partners - KONTEXT Institut für Klimafragen (Climate Track), Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES) (Security Track), Bruegel - Improving economic policy (Finance & Economy Track), and Europe Jacques Delors (Democracy Track) - followed the discussions closely to capture the key insights. Their observations serve as a foundation for our conversations at the European Forum Alpbach 2025.
In the democracy track, three analysts from Europe Jacques Delors attended the sessions at EFA24, covering a broad range of topics within the two track themes “Countering Polarisation and Strengthening Social Cohesion” and “Building Democratic Resilience During and Beyond a Historical Election Year”.
Based on the exchanges and discussions, they summarised their insights and findings in three different blog posts, each highlighting recurring aspects and trends. While they provide only a limited reflection of the broader conversations at the European Forum Alpbach, they link together some of the key issues mentioned: polarisation, democratic backsliding, the effects of the far right on other policy fields, such as climate policy, as well as the future of European democracy and possible EU reform.
Get a glimpse of their key insights:
Democracy in the climate crisis: Can our political systems meet the challenge?
The EU’s Green Deal faces some significant challenges amidst the surge of far-right parties. To ensure that we tackle the climate crisis and reach the climate neutrality goals, the EU will have to both counter the political backlash while maintaining momentum for climate politics. This will not be an easy task, as the climate crisis brings such transformative social, economic and political changes that it will put democracy under pressure. Overcoming polarisation and reaching consensus on climate and environmental policies will require cooperation and more room for negotiation and dialogue.
Restoring trust in democracy amidst an uncertain future.
One foundational element for democracies is trust. Without trust of citizens in electoral processes, democratic institutions and political parties, democracies cannot function. But even further, democracies require a certain amount of trust of citizens in each other – which allows for social cohesion. For those seeking to safeguard democracy and protect it from autocratic tendencies, the question therefore is how decisionmakers can strengthen both institutional and interpersonal trust. Promoting spaces where civil society actors and citizens can come together initiating dialogue and building trust-based relations seems essential.
Reinvigorating democracy: Strategies for a stronger EU
How might the democratic future of the European Union look like in the coming years? As the EU faces multiple challenges and crises, the discourse surrounding its future increasingly centres around the nature of its governance structure and its democratic fabric. The EU and its member states should back participatory approaches to engage citizens meaningfully, consolidate and extend instruments that safeguard democracy, and invest in civic education and media literacy much more forcefully. This path forward requires collective effort, and most importantly a commitment to viewing democracy not merely as a system of governance but as practice.
Climate
Security
Finance and Economy
Reference: Sophia Caiati, Sophie Pornschlegel, Helena van Thiel; European democracy neeeds to win back the trust of its citizens, European Forum Alpbach 2024 Democracy Track Report