What Libraries Teach Us About Building Europe From the Ground Up

There is a particular kind of knowledge that emerges when people spend their days listening to their neighbours, noticing what is missing, and testing small solutions. It is not theoretical or abstract. It is practical, emotional, and deeply civic. You find it most clearly in libraries. 

This autumn, The Europe Challenge 2025/26 teams gathered in Cinisello Balsamo and London for their Regional Summits. The meetings brought together library workers, community organisers and programme alumni. They arrived with different challenges yet recognised something familiar in each other’s work. Whether addressing loneliness, digital exclusion, food insecurity or youth participation, they shared the same starting point: begin with people and build from there. 

What unfolded over the workshops mirrored the best of Europe’s democratic life. Teams practiced anti-perfectionism to make space for more voices. They mapped partnerships by focusing first on what their communities already know. They learned to prototype early so ideas become real enough to test, adapt and strengthen. In every room, the same insight surfaced: libraries are at their strongest when they create conditions for people to shape their own future.

This is why The Europe Challenge sits at the heart of the European Cultural Foundation’s strategy. Libraries are Europe’s everyday democratic infrastructure. They are places where belonging is practiced, where people encounter reliable information, where civic imagination grows, and where communities learn how to act together. When libraries thrive, Europe becomes more resilient, more connected and more hopeful.

The Summits showed this clearly. When participants exchanged stories, they recognised common barriers but also common strengths. When they experimented together, they modelled Europe’s most important skill: the ability to collaborate across borders, experiences and expectations. And when they returned home, they carried new tools for turning their ideas into action. 

If you want to understand how democracy is lived rather than discussed, or how communities create meaning together, libraries are an excellent place to start. The Europe Challenge continues to show what becomes possible when they are trusted, supported and connected. 

The 2025/26 edition is kindly supported by public funding through Arts Council England, Fondazione Cariplo, the Scottish Library and Information Council, and is co-funded by the European Union.