16-17 September 2025, Brussels – NALAS contributed to the Third Team Europe Democracy (TED) Network Annual Meeting, presenting its work at the TED Members’ Fair and participating in plenaries and Working Group sessions. The Annual Meeting gathered over a hundred organisations to discuss challenges related to rising autocracy and shrinking civic space. The meeting underscored a shared reality: democracy faces mounting pressures, and defending it requires coordinated, cross-sectoral action. As autocracies gain ground, organisations across Team Europe reiterated that safeguarding democratic rights and civic space must remain central to development and cooperation efforts. NALAS contributed to open exchanges about how local actors can strengthen participation and amplify democratic resilience and to sharing ideas and lessons on sustaining participation.

At the Members’ Fair, NALAS showcased practical tools and approaches that support local governments in strengthening participation and promoting inclusive governance. The Fair was an opportunity to connect with peers from EU, international and state institutions and other democracy practitioners, reinforcing local governments’ role in translating democratic values into everyday services. Many relevant actors had the opportunity to hear from and exchange with NALAS on our e-Learning courses on deliberative process and migration governance, our peer-exchange platforms as well as about NALAS work on social inclusion.

NALAS will draw on insights from the meeting, continuing to promote inclusive local governance, protect civic space and scale participatory practices that strengthen democracy.

The TED initiative, launched by the European Commission and 14 EU Member States, is a global effort to support democracy, currently connecting more than 100 organisations. NALAS was officially selected at the beginning of 2023 as a member of TED and has been actively contributing to the working group on political and civic participation ever since.