Across Europe, citizens are disengaging. Turnout is falling, trust in institutions is eroding, and the gap between people and the policies that shape their lives is widening. Democracy is sending signals that are hard to ignore.

Built around two EU-funded citizen engagement projects, PROVOTE and Fair Cities, this half-day event brings together practitioners, policymakers, and civil society voices to ask the uncomfortable questions: who is disengaging, why, and what can realistically be done about it? But it also looks forward: tackling democratic disengagement requires not just understanding, but also resources and tools to act.

Why People Stop Voting (10:30–12:00) Drawing on the work of the PROVOTE project across eight EU countries, and on evidence from Fair Cities linking economic pressure and regional inequality to citizens' trust in local and European institutions, this session goes beyond the headlines to explore what is actually driving the disconnect and what it means for Europe'…