Democracy Workshop International

The Democracy Workshop model has been successfully implemented internationally for a number of years.

Democracy Workshop as "export model"

As a successful initiative of the Austrian Parliament, the Democracy Workshop provides knowledge and understanding of democracy and parliamentarianism to children and young people. The Workshops strengthen democratic awareness, participation and resilience.

The Democracy Workshop has developed into an attractive "export model" in recent years.

Three Democracy Workshops based on the Austrian model have already been successfully established in the national Parliaments of Montenegro, Kosovo, and Albania. In three further Parliaments – North Macedonia, Slovakia, and Ukraine – related cooperation projects are being implemented or preparatory discussions are underway.

The programme was implemented in close cooperation with regional and international partner institutions such as the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM) and, until funding was withdrawn, with USAID.

Objective

An important role of parliaments is to raise awareness and interest in parliamentarism, democratic processes, (political) participation, and civic engagement.

To accompany the lowering of the voting age to 16, the Democracy Workshop was established in the Austrian Parliament in 2007. With its unique educational concept, it promotes the transfer of knowledge about democracy and parliamentarism. In the spirit of capacity-building, it serves as a best-practice example in several countries of the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership.

Democracy Workshop Forum

To strengthen networking and foster closer cross-border cooperation, the Austrian Parliament, together with its then-implementation partner IDM and with the support of the ERSTE Foundation, launched the Democracy Workshop Forum. The Forum was held virtually for the first time in March 2021 and has since developed into a regularly-held event. The Forum promotes dialogue within the Democracy Workshop community and provides a platform for the exchange of best-practice examples.

Since 2023, the Austrian Parliament has also been organising the Forum as an in-person event, in which participants from eight countries have taken part to date. To promote regional exchange and cooperation, the 2025 Forum was held for the first time as a joint event, co-hosted by the Austrian and Montenegrin Parliaments in Podgorica.

Cross-Country Online Democracy Workshops

The format of the Cross-Country Online Democracy Workshops was developed as a result of the 8th Democracy Workshop Forum. In three workshops on the values of the European Union, school pupils from Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Slovakia and Ukraine conducted interviews with Members of Parliament from Austria and the participating countries and produced a joint newspaper. This promotes cross-regional exchange on democracy education and strengthens cooperation between the participating Parliaments.

Other activities

Cooperations already implemented

With the support of the Austrian Parliament and start-up funding from the ERSTE Foundation, three further institutions have been established based on the model of the Austrian Democracy Workshop: a Democracy Workshop has been in place in the Parliament of Montenegro since 2014 and in the Parliament of Kosovo since 2019. This was followed by Albania in 2024.
Ongoing implementations

In March 2020, cooperation with North Macedonia was launched with the signing of a Letter of Intent. To this end, the Austrian Parliamentary Administration is in dialogue with colleagues from the Republic of North Macedonia.

Slovakia is the first EU Member State to implement the Democracy Workshop, based on the Austrian model. In June 2021, a Letter of Intent was signed regarding the establishment of a Democracy Workshop in Bratislava. Since then, contacts have been maintained at an administrative level.

In December 2023, a delegation consisting of Members of Parliament and staff from the Verkhovna Rada expressed Ukraine’s interest in establishing a Democracy Workshop in Kyiv based on the Austrian model. In July 2024, a corresponding Letter of Intent was signed by both Parliaments. There is an intensive exchange between the two administrations and the IDM. With the freezing of funds for USAID, the next steps and the further timetable remain open.