Democracy matters – for each and every one of us, and in particular in the important election year 2019. Democracy and participation start where we live, in our town, city or region – and through democracy we are all connected, from the local level via the national level up to the European Union.

That is why the PES Group in the European Committee of the Regions is organising on 21 March a workshop called "Learning Democracy Locally" in the context of the 5^th edition of the School of Democracy, an initiative of the S&D Group in the European Parliament.

The workshop will highlight the particular challenges and opportunities of reviving participation in democracy, with a specific focus on involving younger citizens at local or regional level. The event brings together young people from across the EU and four speakers with very distinct experiences and backgrounds, in an open and interactive debate.

Participants should leave from the workshop with new ideas on why engaging in politics at a local level is important and on how to motivate other people to join them. They will discuss tools and formats for organising participation and for making the link between political decisions at different levels in order to address the various challenges which our democratic systems face at local, regional, national and the European level.

The key findings of the workshop will feed into the School of Democracy's plenary debate, moderated by Kathleen Van Brempt, Vice-President of the S&D Group, and following the Millennials Dialogue with Frans Timmermans, PES Common Candidate for the next Presidency of the European Commission.