This report presents a comprehensive foresight study on the futures of democracy in the EU, examining the complex interplay between emerging issues concerning the impact of artificial intelligence, citizen engagement in democracy, and quality of democratic processes and institutions.

The study's methodology involved participatory workshops with experts, developing "futures wheels" to discuss possible outcomes and key drivers of change as well as four future scenarios: AIFacilitated Direct Democracy, Citizen Pushback, Technocratic Government Overreach, and Big Tech Power Grab. The scenarios are designed to stimulate critical thinking and informed decision-making, not to predict specific outcomes for democracy. They reveal key tensions that must be balanced in
order to foster a resilient and inclusive democracy in the EU. These include the pursuit of efficiency versus meaningful citizen agency, the concentration of power, use of data in governance systems and other. By exploring the implications of these tensions through scenarios, policymakers can gain insights into how to navigate the complex landscape of democratic governance and make informed decisions for a strong, vibrant democracy in the EU that is responsive to the evolving needs of
society.

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Use the different elements of the report for example for promoting futures thinking, discussions with citizens or when considering policy options related to democratic challenges. See more on the project page 

We help leaders future-proof their business: future-fit strategies, new fields of innovation, navigating uncertainty.

Facing uncertainty around climate change, AI, and job security, youth in Vietnam took part in two foresight workshops where they explored future trends, used strategic tools, and built skills to respond to challenges and shape long-term solutions. 

Why Futures Thinking Skills Matter for the Youth in Vietnam

Young people across Vietnam and Southeast Asia are navigating a future shaped by climate change, environmental degradation, and the rapid rise of automation and AI. Many are concerned about job security and feel uncertain about what lies ahead. There’s also a growing sense of mistrust toward institutions and doubts about whether a sustainable and just future is truly being safeguarded. In the face of these realities, learning how to think strategically about the future - and take action - is becoming an essential skillset for youth.

Exploring the Future Through Youth Collaboration & Foresight

With the support of the European Commission, the EU Delegation in Vietnam organised two online foresight workshops for the Vietnam Youth Advisory Board (VYAB). The sessions were held in September 2024 and each session lasted 1.5 hours, tailored to the participants’ availability across time zones.

The workshops brought together young people from VYAB and participants from neighboring countries to explore how futures thinking could help youth shape Southeast Asia’s future, especially around three EU priorities: the digital and circular economy, responsible entrepreneurship, and governance.

Using the Youth4Foresight toolkit, participants engaged in interactive sessions via Miro, an online collaboration tool that was well received. The energy was high, especially as youth connected across the region and from different professional backgrounds to share ideas and build new perspectives. 

Tools to Shift Mindsets and Spark Ideas

To kick off, participants explored three warm-up exercises: imagining the world in 2050, rating uncertainties about the future, and identifying trends likely to shape the region. These activities encouraged reflection and helped shift thinking from the present to long-term possibilities. The future holds many paths, but once we begin to recognize them and take action, we can shape those possibilities into something better. 

From Trends to Actions

The workshops introduced two main foresight tools: the Futures Wheel and 3 Horizons.

With the Futures Wheel, participants mapped the ripple effects of trends like digital transition, shifting global power dynamics, and resource scarcity. This helped them understand how one change could lead to another, revealing both risks and opportunities for regional action.

The 3 Horizons exercise invited participants to reflect on current realities, imagine more desirable futures, and propose ways to get there. Working in teams based on EU priorities, they turned broad visions into concrete ideas and short-term actions. 

Shared Futures, Shared Responsibility: A Key Takeaway

Futures thinking proved to be a powerful tool in times of uncertainty. It allowed participants to think more strategically, adaptively, and collaboratively. As they described: "It gave structure to our ideas. We felt more in control of shaping what’s next."

One of the strongest takeaways was the value of working together. By sharing ideas across the region and professional backgrounds, participants saw how collective thinking leads to more creative, inclusive, and actionable outcomes. It’s not just about imagining what’s coming - it’s about imagining it together.

Youth left the workshops with stronger skills, renewed motivation, and a clearer sense of how they can lead change in their communities and beyond.

Check out the toolkit and start building your future-thinking muscles! 

In a world facing multiple global challenges and geopolitical tensions strategic foresight helps organisations to anticipate long-term change to make better decisions in the present day.

Foresight offers a method for positive engagement beyond the focus on past or current issues, fostering creativity and providing alternatives to current paradigms. Using foresight tools can help to integrate youth perspectives into EU external action, focusing on desired futures, transition pathways and trends.

Through the Youth Action Plan in EU external action (YAP) the EU builds a partnership with young people worldwide by engaging, empowering, and connecting them through various processes and activities. The Y4F toolkit supports the implementation of the YAP, in particular the commitments to increase the voice and leadership of young people, promote their involvement in the EU external policies and actions, as well as to enhance institutional capacity and expertise of EU staff on how to engage with young people.

The Y4F toolkit fits into the first EU Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness (March 2026) developing the reflex of long-term thinking in EU policymaking, while giving greater weight to the views and concerns of young people. The EU's overarching goal is to guarantee that current decisions are made with the future in mind, ensuring a fair balance of benefits and burdens across all generations. The Strategy aligns with global efforts for a long-term approach in planning and policies, such as in the UN Declaration on Future Generations.

DG International Partnerships uses Foresight to shift our mind-set from the here-and-now (reactive) to future-in-the-making (anticipatory), in line with the European Commission’s embedding of Strategic Foresight in better policymaking.  

Youth4Foresight (Y4F) Toolkit

The Y4F toolkit is designed for experts who engage with young people as part of EU external action (such as Youth Sounding Boards at EU Delegation level, youth organisations, and any other kind of youth advisory structures at local or national level). However, the approach detailed in the toolkit can be used by anyone who wants to work with youth in the context of foresight or even just by young people alone.

We recommend that you start your journey by reading the Introduction to the Y4F Toolkit or watching the introductory webinar. You can also find inspiration in selected use cases. 

We recommend that you start your journey by reading the Introduction to the Y4F Toolkit or watching the introductory webinar. The full toolkit and webinars are universally available and can be accessed on the Capacity4Dev website. 

Our toolkit and additional materials are accessible in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. 

The European Union Drugs Agency’s (EUDA) project “Synthetic Drugs 2050” addressed the growing uncertainty surrounding the future availability, spread, and use of synthetic drugs in Europe up to 2050. Synthetic drugs represent a rapidly evolving and systemic challenge for Europe, affecting public health, security, social cohesion, productivity, and overall wellbeing. Accelerated technological change, globalised supply chains, digitalisation, and increasingly blurred boundaries between legal, illegal, controlled, and uncontrolled substances further amplify the complexity of this issue.

The project applied a participatory strategic foresight approach to explore possible futures of synthetic drugs in Europe, moving beyond short-term monitoring and reactive policy responses. By systematically analysing global and regional drivers of change, emerging trends, weak signals, and deep uncertainties, the project built a shared understanding of how synthetic drugs markets, uses, and impacts may evolve in the medium- and long-term.

Through horizon scanning, trend analysis, scenario building, and sense-making activities, Synthetic Drugs 2050 supports EU-level and national stakeholders in anticipating risks, identifying opportunities, and strengthening policy resilience. The project explicitly linked foresight insights to strategic reflection, policy options, and research priorities, while embedding capacity-building components to enhance futures literacy and long-term preparedness within the EU drug policy ecosystem.

Objectives

The Synthetic Drugs 2050 project encompassed:

• A comprehensive, methodologically robust foresight study on the future availability and use of synthetic drugs in Europe up to 2050, exploring systemic drivers, uncertainties, and disruptive developments across social, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal, and ethical dimensions.
• Development of multiple plausible future scenarios describing how synthetic drugs diffusion in Europe could evolve by 2050, challenging prevailing assumptions and highlighting non-obvious risks and opportunities.
• Mapping of first-, second-, and third-order implications of synthetic drugs diffusion across Europe, identifying cause–effect pathways, time-bound consequences, and cross-sectoral impacts on health, public safety, governance, and society.
• Support for strategic preparedness and policy resilience by co-developing policy responses, strategic options, and research and innovation priorities at EU and national levels.
• Further development of strengthened foresight capacity and futures literacy within EUDA and its stakeholder community through learning-by-doing, participatory engagement, and the development of reusable foresight tools and frameworks.

Outputs

• Horizon scanning and trend analysis reports
• A set of four future scenarios for synthetic drugs in Europe by 2050
• A mapped system of time-bound implications and cause–effect pathways
• Policy responses and strategic recommendations
• A foresight manual and horizon scanning framework for future use

Find more information here: https://www.euda.europa.eu/index_en