If you are reading these lines, it probably means that we share at least two things: a concern about the decisive upcoming European Elections in 2024 and a sense of the risks and opportunities that digital technologies imply for democracy.

The report Democracy in a Digital Society by Reimagine Europa evidences the need for innovative, bold actions for democratic involvement in the digital sphere. Manuel Castells highlighted that “Europe is in danger because of a lack of ideas”. Well, we have one. And we believe its both powerful and feasible.

For the past months we have been working to develop a comprehensive app engaging European citizens, especially the youngest, in European politics. We are convinced that we can reach millions of citizens through a Voting Advice Application (VAA) at the EU level.

There is ample evidence that younger European citizens (16-28) have a differentiated electoral behavior. This phenomenon has been thoroughly studied –both its causes and consequences– but the current strategies to increase youth turnout are not always aligned with the empirical diagnosis.

Such an app would serve a triple purpose: being a vote mobilization device (1), informing its users about the European political debates while combatting both disinformation and polarization (2) and generating valuable knowledge for social research purposes (3).

Please keep reading this presentation to discover more about our project, its origins and how will we make it happen. We are already on the right track, and, with your financial support and expertise, we can have a positive long-term impact on the European conversation about digitalization and democracy.

Enthusiastically,

The team behind Palumba EU