Helfried Carl

Helfried Carl is an Austrian diplomat turned democracy innovator who builds the infrastructure for democratic participation across Europe. He is the Founder and CEO of the European Capital of Democracy (ECoD) — a non-profit organisation under the patronage of European Commission Vice-President Dubravka Suica and the auspices of the Council of Europe — and a Partner at The Innovation in Politics Institute, both based in Vienna.

Before entering the world of democratic innovation, Carl spent decades in diplomacy and parliamentary administration. He served as Austria's Ambassador to Slovakia (2014–2019), as Chief of Cabinet to the President of the Austrian National Council, and held postings at the Austrian Mission to the United Nations in New York and the Office of the High Representative in Sarajevo. He holds an M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

The European Capital of Democracy initiative, which Carl founded and leads, is changing the way cities engage with their citizens. The programme scouts and spotlights cities that lead the way in democratic innovation and citizen participation, with applications from across all 47 Council of Europe member states and Kosovo, and more than 4,500 Citizen Jury members evaluating and shaping the selection process.

Through the Innovation in Politics Institute, Carl also helps drive The Innovation in Politics Awards, which recognize outstanding political projects across Europe — from participatory budgeting to digital governance tools — creating a growing knowledge base of what actually works in democratic practice.

As artificial intelligence transforms public services, policy-making, and the way citizens interact with institutions, the question of democratic governance becomes urgent. How do cities deploy AI tools while keeping citizens in the loop? How do participatory processes scale when algorithms shape the information people see? Carl's work at the intersection of democratic innovation, citizen participation, and European governance speaks directly to these questions — not from theory, but from the practical experience of building democratic infrastructure across an entire continent.