The organisation was formally established in June 2011 [1] as a registered membership association (eingetragener Verein e.V.)

Democracy International is politically independent and funded by membership fees and individual donations.

The members elect Democracy International’s executive board [2] at the general assembly, which is held at least every two years.

Democracy International then handed over the results to Sven Giegold, the European Parliament's rapporteur in the “Report on Transparency, Integrity and Accountability”.

Since the Commission is headed by Jean- Claude Juncker, a voluntary lobby register has been put in place.

Rather than elaborating proposals that are then to be decided by the presidency, the Convention members should directly determine what the final draft should entail.

Participatory mechanisms should be in place, that allow citizens and civil society to give input and to contribute to the proceedings.

To accomplish that the Convention needs to facilitate digital and traditional platforms for citizens and civil society.

Finally, the results of the Convention process should be put to popular vote in all EU Member States on the same day, in a pan-European referendum.

The petition "Save the ECI", which French economist Thomas Piketty and the German political scientist Gesine Schwan both supported, was the core element of this campaign.

On 16 August 2017 Democracy International handed over 100,000 signatures of Europeans demanding a reinforcement of the ECI.

The „Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy“, which takes place every two years, is the central platform connecting specialists, activists and organisations working on this subject internationally.