The project centered around a public debate and presentation of a foresight report on the future of European democracy, considering the impending 2024 European Parliament elections. The event brought together experts from Germany, Hungary, Poland and Brussels to discuss critical challenges such as democratic resilience, the state of rule of law, fundamental rights, and the EU’s global role. This initiative was part of a strategic foresight program with RSI’s participation over the previous year, which included insights from over 150 policy influencers and analysts in the Central European region. During the debate we explored four scenarios for the EU’s future, named “Conservative Alliance of Convenience”, “Democratic Renaissance”, “Fractured European Horizons”, and “Shadows of the Union” based on a quadrant of stronger or weaker Europe and stronger or weaker democracy in the outcomes. The presented report underscored the need for robust policy actions to uphold the rule of law, bridge societal gaps, combat disinformation, and engage the youth. The scenarios presented served as a comprehensive analysis from which future EU policy directions could be developed, aiming to reconcile the challenges of unity, security, economic resilience, and democratic integrity across the EU.

Parties/organizations involved: Finland: Embassy of Finland; Italy: Lothean Foundation; Ireland: Embassy of Ireland; Hungary: MeOut Group, European Commission Representation Hungary, ESSCA Hungary, Union of European Federalists Hungary, IRI Budapest, Magyar Narancs, Élet és Irodalom, Gulyáságyú Média, HUN-REN CSS, Ökotárs-Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation, HUEF, CEID, other; Poland: (Embassy of Poland; Slovakia: RSI, Minority Report; Spain: Alamut; Romania: other; USA: IRI.