European Foundation for Democracy

We address all forms of radicalisation which can lead to violent extremism regardless of the political or religious ideology that may drive this. Specifically, we support initiatives to strengthen resilience of communities in different countries by empowering credible pro-democratic voices to prevent radicalisation from gaining a foothold.

To achieve this, we create practical tools to support front-line professionals (teachers, social workers, NGOs etc.) by developing practitioners’ guides for prevention work – e.g. identifying the early signs of radicalisation among at-risk youth in schools, developing and implementing effective counter and alternative narrative campaigns, among others.

We cooperate with the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN), created in 2011. RAN brings together front-line practitioners, policy experts and EU national government representatives to address radicalisation.

We also help to raise awareness of online extremism via social media and the Internet and undertake radicalisation prevention work among refugee communities in Germany, in particular, by fostering leadership skills among young refugees. We also train police and security services to help them detect and address signs of radicalisation.

We educate and inform policy-makers, officials and politicians about the latest research and developments on radicalisation, as well as on the results of our prevention work. We do this through our programme of conferences, panel debates, workshops, policy briefings, advocacy work and publications.

We established the Network for a New European Generation to empower leaders who are working with – and within – communities of Muslim heritage in Europe to engage in radicalisation prevention initiatives and promote successful integration. Network members, based in France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the UK and Ireland, continue to work with NGOs, national governments and their agencies, academic and other stakeholders on preventing radicalisation, ensuring the issue remains in the public eye.