European Political Academy 2025

The Europapolitische Akademie 2025, a joint project by FEPS and the Karl-Renner-Institut (KRI), reaches its final milestone with a comprehensive study visit to Brussels. As the concluding chapter of this pioneering training programme for young Austrian progressives, the Brussels visit offered participants a first-hand experience of the heart of the European Union.

Throughout the year, participants have completed four intensive modules in Vienna, focusing on:

• Institutions and legislation; the social-democratic approach to the European Green Deal
• Skills in lobbying and networking
• EU crisis policy: Solidarity put to the test; the vision of a socially and ecologically sustainable EU economic policy
• The EU as global actor; enlargement; rule of law in the EU; the asylum & migration package

The Brussels programme was built on this basis, directly interacting with major EU institutions, including the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the European External Action Service (EEAS and the Committee of the Regions (CoR).

Participants also engaged with the progressive family at the European level: PES, YES, PES Women, and the Austrian S&D Delegation and met key representatives from ETUC, IPPC and other progressive civil society organisations

With its strategic partnership between FEPS and KRI, the programme empowered a new generation of young Austrians—aged 20 to 40—to become informed, engaged, and effective multipliers of European progressive values.

For more information about this project, please do not hesitate to contact Elena Gil, Training and Project Coordinator (elena.gil@feps-europe.eu)