The ProDem team travelled to Brussels to for its first stakeholder meeting at the European Parliament and the launch of our research report ‘Strengthening Democracy in Europe: How movement parties, social movements and active citizens are reshaping Europe’ . The meeting with European politcians, representatives of civil society and community organisations was the inaugural event for the ProDem stakeholder network, a platform we are building to enable the open exchange of ideas for how to ensure the project’s results are carried over into practice and future research. The plurality of voices at the meeting allowed for a robust discussion on topics central to ProDem, including a critical conversation about key project findings and policy recommendations, all geared towards the shared goal to improve democratic quality in Europe, the European Union and its member states.

The cross-group event, which was also streamed online, was funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung and hosted at the European Parliament by Nicu Ștefănuță (MEP, Renew Europe) with the support of EP Vice-President Katarina Barley (S&D), Dacian Cioloș (MEP, Renew Europe), Daniel Freund (MEP, Greens/EFA), and the input of our partner NGOs including Alliance4Europe (Brussels), Edgeryders (Brussels), The Democratic Society (Brussels), Helsinki Committee Hungary (HU), BiPart (IT), declic (RO), Femei in Politica (RO), Unlock Democracy (UK).

Special thanks to Volkswagen Stiftung for the financial support, and to all attendees for contributing towards such a generative event. We will continue to build on these ideas, expand and strengthen links, and meet again in the next year to create actionable moves forward together.