Founded in February 2008[1][4][5] as a project of the United Kingdom-based Phoenix Education Trust, the organisation has been an independently registered non-profit[2] NGO in Germany since 2009.

EUDEC's members are individuals, schools and institutions throughout Europe with decades of experience in democratic education.

[11] It seeks dialogue and information exchange with national state education systems through these international activities.

Learning can take place in classrooms, as in conventional schools, but also in many ways outside classrooms as informal learning, such as independent study, internet research, internships, playing games, volunteering, doing projects, visiting museums, travel and discussions with friends and teachers.

Students and teachers sit together as equals to discuss and vote on school rules, curricula, projects, the hiring of staff and budgetary matters.

They are well equipped to manage their own lives and create their own identities and thus to face the emerging challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.