By Bruno Antonio, Lindsay Vogelzang
Over four days in Februar 2025, a group of 31 experts from 12 different countries ((Belgium, both French and Flemish-speaking communities), the Netherlands, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Slovak Republic, Armenia, Poland, France, Norway and Portugal.) and diverse professional backgrounds gathered to exchange knowledge, practices and methodologies on how to foster youth participation in decision-making processes at local level.
This meeting provided an important moment of pause and perspective, showing that the erosion of democratic values and practices is not a distant problem, but a growing concern even within consolidated democratic systems. In a moment where our democracies across the globe and within the European continent are facing increasing threats. We can see a coordinated and structured approach to disrupt our democratic institutions, and to weaken civil society actors. Such a gathering makes a lot of sense. We need more moments where practitioners, educations, experts can exchange their approaches, can network and build
new or strengthen even more existing partnerships.
The participants, trainers, educators, consultants, and youth participation specialists, brought unique yet complementary perspectives on how to strengthen local democracies through concrete, practice-based approaches. They shared tools, methodologies, and real-world experiences that empower young people to engage meaningfully in local governance.
Throughout the sessions, a strong focus was placed on developing inclusive, participatory spaces where young voices can influence public decisions and policymaking processes. Next to this the occasion was used to launch the newly developed website of Democracy Reloading and collect input for the following development phase of the digital platform. Beyond the exchange of practices, the meeting served as a privileged platform for strategic networking and international cooperation. These experts, many of whom are already embedded in long-term partnerships such as Democracy Reloading, reaffirmed their commitment to shared goals: reinforcing the democratic context of local communities and supporting the next generation of civic leaders.
One of the major outcomes of the meeting was the renewed focus on the professional development of practitioners. Discussions centred around the creation of a dedicated pool of experts, strengthening their role, visibility, and connection to institutions such as Erasmus+ National Agencies and broader European institutions. The complexity of the democratic crisis requires skilled, resilient practitioners, and this space offered both a moment of recognition and a springboard for further growth.
The Experts Seminar was hosted and organized in a close cooperation with the Dutch Erasmus+ Youth Agency within the framework of the Democracy Reloaded Partnership, which brought together key stakeholders to further develop and implement the Partnership’s objectives. This initiative, supported by 12 Erasmus+ Youth National Agencies, works as a follow-up to the Trainers4Democracy long term training course (2022-2023).
The follow-up seminar, which we are now reporting in this report, was organised in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in cooperation with the Erasmus+ National Agencies (in particular the agencies from the Netherlands, Slovakia and Hungary) and coordinated by Bureau International Jeunesse (the Erasmus+ Youth Agency of the French speaking community of Belgium). The seminar contributed to the main aim of the partnership, to empower municipal youth policy officers on how to effectively engage young people in municipal decision-making, as the primary goal was to reflect on the achievements and opportunities of the Partnership at local, national and European levels.
The specific objectives of the Seminar were:
Exchange of Democracy Reloading training and consultancy practices;
Explore how experts and National Agencies can collaborate on implementing national
DR strategies and activities;Further networking and strengthening cooperation among the experts;
Exploration for National Agencies what potential international community of DR
experts can offer;Contribute to establishing a professionalised community of Democracy Reloading
experts.