07.10.2025 (Caucasian Journal). Vienna, the capital of Austria, currently holds the prestigious title of European Capital of Democracy. What exactly does it imply, and why was Vienna selected for it?
To explore this, the Caucasian Journal has the unique opportunity to speak to Mr. Helfried CARL, the Austrian diplomat and political strategist, founder of the European Capital of Democracy and The Innovation In Politics Institute.
▶ ქართულად: The Georgian version is here.
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Helfried CARL: “I JUST HOPE THAT GEORGIA DOESN'T MISS THE TRAIN”
Alexander KAFFKA, editor-in-chief of CJ: Welcome to Caucasian Journal! What is the "European Capital of Democracy" about, and how are you personally involved in it?
Helfried CARL: Thank you very much for the invitation. Okay, so I have probably to start from the very beginning. European Capital of Democracy is about the conviction that grew within me and my friends with whom I am organizing this, that there is a lot of local innovation in the field of democracy going on, and that there are two things we need to do about it:
One is we need to have a best practice exchange, and the other one is we also want to showcase to the wider public what's going on. And to do this, we decided to do something like a selection procedure.
So we are asking every year (it's an annual title) cities, in the territory of the Council of Europe and Kosovo, if they have more than 100,000 inhabitants, to apply for the title with three projects in the field of democracy they are already implementing, and three they would implement if they receive the title "European Capital of Democracy".
And thus, they have to do some work to submit the application. When they have done so, there is an international experts jury of six highly renowned international experts from different fields, and they do an evaluation, they do city visits to see whether the circumstances are right, and then they come up with a short list of three cities, which are then submitted to another jury, which is a citizens jury of 4,500 European citizens, who in the end decide who will win the title. And so we had Barcelona as the first European Capital of Democracy, currently it's Vienna, and we have already chosen the third city for next year, which is Cascais - a city close to Lisbon in Portugal. And currently, we are looking for the fourth European Capital of Democracy, so the selection procedure is open and all cities are welcome to apply.
AK: You are a career diplomat. What motivated you to step into the NGO field? Was there a turning point that pushed you towards working on democracy?
HC: I've always been a very political person, and the more I looked at the situation in Europe, the more I was convinced that we need innovation in the democratic center of the spectrum.
When I first discussed these issues with friends, with whom I then later founded the Innovation in Politics Institute, we saw that people like Erdogan, Orban, Trump, seem to be more innovative than the people we care for.
And we thought we had to change this. This is why after my stint in Slovakia, where I enjoyed every day being an ambassador, I thought, okay, I want to go into the private field (it's not just NGO, the Innovation in Politics Institute is a private company) and help to bring the innovation that is already out there, also in terms of a best practice exchange across Europe. And we have a product that is called Innovation in Politics Awards, where we scout around 300 political projects all over Europe every year, in the Council of Europe field, and from that we learn how much interesting democratic innovation is happening. Ankara received a Democracy Award last year, because they have done a very successful Citizen Council. In Ankara, where we thought Erdogan was around, and things are not that well. A lot is going on at the local level, I have to say.
Helfried CARL: Thank you very much for the invitation. Okay, so I have probably to start from the very beginning. European Capital of Democracy is about the conviction that grew within me and my friends with whom I am organizing this, that there is a lot of local innovation in the field of democracy going on, and that there are two things we need to do about it:
One is we need to have a best practice exchange, and the other one is we also want to showcase to the wider public what's going on. And to do this, we decided to do something like a selection procedure.
So we are asking every year (it's an annual title) cities, in the territory of the Council of Europe and Kosovo, if they have more than 100,000 inhabitants, to apply for the title with three projects in the field of democracy they are already implementing, and three they would implement if they receive the title "European Capital of Democracy".
And thus, they have to do some work to submit the application. When they have done so, there is an international experts jury of six highly renowned international experts from different fields, and they do an evaluation, they do city visits to see whether the circumstances are right, and then they come up with a short list of three cities, which are then submitted to another jury, which is a citizens jury of 4,500 European citizens, who in the end decide who will win the title. And so we had Barcelona as the first European Capital of Democracy, currently it's Vienna, and we have already chosen the third city for next year, which is Cascais - a city close to Lisbon in Portugal. And currently, we are looking for the fourth European Capital of Democracy, so the selection procedure is open and all cities are welcome to apply.
AK: You are a career diplomat. What motivated you to step into the NGO field? Was there a turning point that pushed you towards working on democracy?
HC: I've always been a very political person, and the more I looked at the situation in Europe, the more I was convinced that we need innovation in the democratic center of the spectrum.
When I first discussed these issues with friends, with whom I then later founded the Innovation in Politics Institute, we saw that people like Erdogan, Orban, Trump, seem to be more innovative than the people we care for.
And we thought we had to change this. This is why after my stint in Slovakia, where I enjoyed every day being an ambassador, I thought, okay, I want to go into the private field (it's not just NGO, the Innovation in Politics Institute is a private company) and help to bring the innovation that is already out there, also in terms of a best practice exchange across Europe. And we have a product that is called Innovation in Politics Awards, where we scout around 300 political projects all over Europe every year, in the Council of Europe field, and from that we learn how much interesting democratic innovation is happening. Ankara received a Democracy Award last year, because they have done a very successful Citizen Council. In Ankara, where we thought Erdogan was around, and things are not that well. A lot is going on at the local level, I have to say.
We could have a lot more democracy, but we are seeing a lot less democracy.
HC: It's a good question. I think there is a very contradictory moment. We could have a lot more democracy, but we are seeing a lot less democracy. For us in Europe, the most difficult fact to come to terms with is that our friends in the US see such a crisis of democracy, and this is a very careful way to describe it.
And this is something which we are not used to at all. After all, the US were the ones in 1945 who brought freedom and democracy to half our continent. The other half had to wait, but then still the US were very much on this side, and in Europe, we thought that we were on the same side of history, and at the moment, most of us see that this is going in the wrong direction.
Some in Europe even like this trend, and this is also very dangerous. So we face considerable challenges, but at the same time, I still don't think that any of the authoritarian regimes are really attractive to the people. If you look at migration waves, for example, it's not the case that people move to countries with less democracy.
So, I do believe that in the end, we shall prevail, but there will be a big, big struggle to overcome the tendencies we see at the moment.
AK: Let's return to Vienna itself. What are some of Vienna's unique democratic achievements that earned this title? And what kind of know-how might be transferable to other countries, including those in our region?
HC: As I explained before, it's not me who made the judgment, it's the experts and then the citizens' jury. Vienna has big strengths, and they showed them in their application. What was even more interesting was that they made an issue out of their weaknesses.
The strength is that they have very strong formal ways of democracy - obviously democracy is deeply rooted in Vienna - and they also have a lot of big consultation mechanisms - with youth, with children, with minorities. However, they said we have one big issue in Vienna, and that is that one-third of Vienna's population is not allowed to vote in our elections. This is because Austria has a very restrictive naturalization law, so even children who were born in Vienna and who lived there their whole life, from the last migrant waves of the Yugoslav wars, etc., are not allowed to vote in the city of Vienna.
Vienna is not only a city, but it is also a region with legislative powers, and this is why the constitutional court on the national level said that you cannot have those people vote.
I think that the foremost enemy we face is social media, the big social media companies. And I think we need to harshly regulate them.
AK: Democracy thrives on healthy debate, but often it is crippled by extreme polarization, which is the case in our country as well. What specific mechanisms or civic innovations can you outline?
HC: Well, as the European Capital of Democracy is non-profit, we bring our platforms and ideas. So on the one hand, it is Vienna doing what they promised to do when they applied, and on the other hand, we have several formats that we bring to the cities during the "Democracy Year", as we call it.
We organize a mayor's conference, for example. From the regions and from all the cities, whoever applied for the title, we invite them. Also, we have a format called "Truth, Lies and Democracy", which is happening right now this weekend in Vienna.
And there is a game jam of video gaming developers who work on dummy games, where people can play in a gameful way with the issue of fake news. They develop them over a weekend, and then we hand them over to professional game developers and ask them to look at them. It is something we did in Barcelona already very successfully, and we are now doing in Vienna, and it is a growing process.
And the largest of our formats is the Innovation in Politics Awards, which I already mentioned. There we have a category called Democracy Technologies. You see that a lot is going on in this field at the moment in terms of possibilities to mitigate on social media, how to make sure that what you see is what you get, and that it is not fake news, kind of redacted content, or something like that.
Frankly, I think that the foremost enemy we face is social media, the big social media companies. And I think we need to harshly regulate them.
If we want to preserve our European way of life, then we have to be regulators in this field. I do not see any other way to do so. There are other factors at play as well. But it is also social media.
I think we also need to just learn to talk to each other… And you have to accept differences in life. If you don't do so, we are all going to kill each other. So I think that's what democracy is about.
And then I think we also need to just learn to talk to each other. I think people are not that good at accepting differences anymore. And you have to accept differences in life. If you don't do so, we are all going to kill each other. So I think that's what democracy is about.
AK: You've worked across Europe for many years. Based on that experience, what role do you see for smaller states or regions, like the Caucasus, in the broader European democratic landscape?
HC: I'm not an expert on this region. But I am convinced, especially coming from a country the size of Austria. (By the way, we were taught at the Foreign Ministry that we're not talking about a small country like Austria. We are taught to say "a country the size of Austria". Maybe the Georgians can do the same.) We should be conscious of the fact that most of the countries in Europe are somewhat like us. They are not the big ones. We don't belong to the big five. But we make up Europe. We make up this puzzle of very different states and ethnicities.
And I do believe that we can definitely make a big difference. When you look at the Council of Europe, for example, the content that is created there, the governing laws that were developed there over the last 50 years, this is extremely important. And it's important that Georgia is a part of this. It's important that Austria is part of this. It's more than just the European Union.
There is now a window of opportunity for Georgia to join. And I would not waste the time. Look at the Balkans...
There is now a window of opportunity for Georgia to join. And I would not waste the time. Look at the Balkans. I've been working in the Balkans a lot. Many Balkan states are doing fabulously in terms of opening the negotiation chapters now. And they will join in 2030.
And then there is Ukraine. And we will see, but I think that's going to happen as well. So I just hope that Georgia doesn't miss the train.
AK: Finally, since you are visiting Georgia, do you have any observations or advice specifically for our country or for the Caucasus generally? If you do, the floor is yours.
HC: I have, because I really liked what I saw. I liked the people. I think the people are extremely friendly and also very open to foreigners. I liked the wonderful landscape I saw. I was also very impressed by, for example, the fact that everyday corruption seems to be quite low.
And having been in other areas of Southeast Europe, I have to say that this is quite an interesting phenomenon. At the same time, we all read the news and know about the Law on Foreign Agents.
I'm deeply convinced that a shrinking democratic space will mean that this advantage of your country will be put at risk. Because when there is less democracy, there is less control. When there is less control, we know what is going to happen.
So I very much hope that this country goes in the right direction. And I think there is a huge potential there. I'm really, really impressed by what I saw.
And then there is Ukraine. And we will see, but I think that's going to happen as well. So I just hope that Georgia doesn't miss the train.
AK: Finally, since you are visiting Georgia, do you have any observations or advice specifically for our country or for the Caucasus generally? If you do, the floor is yours.
So I just hope that Georgia doesn't miss the train.
And having been in other areas of Southeast Europe, I have to say that this is quite an interesting phenomenon. At the same time, we all read the news and know about the Law on Foreign Agents.
I'm deeply convinced that a shrinking democratic space will mean that this advantage of your country will be put at risk. Because when there is less democracy, there is less control. When there is less control, we know what is going to happen.
So I very much hope that this country goes in the right direction. And I think there is a huge potential there. I'm really, really impressed by what I saw.
AK: Mr. Carl, thank you very much. And we are hoping to see you again.
HC: Thank you very much. Always welcome. I'm very glad to be welcomed by you here. I wish the Caucasian Journal lots of support and success.
HC: Thank you very much. Always welcome. I'm very glad to be welcomed by you here. I wish the Caucasian Journal lots of support and success.
▶ ქართულად: Read or watch the Georgian version here.
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