Competitiveness remains at the top of the policy agenda, and the work of the Lisbon Council to help ensure Europe’s future is shaped for and by its founders continues just as strongly. The Lisbon Council convened the Scaling Europe Summit 2026, bringing together leading European entrepreneurs and policymakers for a dialogue on what comes next for a thriving European startup and scale-up ecosystem.

How to truly achieve digital sovereignty? To answer this question and identify new ways to deliver change, the Lisbon Council convened the High-Level Roundtable on ‘Sovereignty in Practice: A New Path for Europe’s Digital Success,’ taking a deep dive into the potential of smart public procurement, automated compliance and flexible innovation funding.

There is no secure and competitive Europe without sustainability. As European cities take the centre stage of this transition, the real challenge lies in delivering it under real economic and political constraints. To explore the path ahead, the Lisbon Council convened the 2026 Sustainable Cities Summit on ‘Squaring the Green Circle: Climate Action, Economic Urgency, Urban Reality.’ The summit served to launch the Sustainable Cities Lab, a new initiative to move from what must be done to how Europe delivers.

Artificial intelligence is evolving from a passive tool into autonomous agents capable of executing multiple tasks. To map out strategic solutions to bridge the gap between fast-moving innovation and consumer protection, the Lisbon Council convened the High-Level Lunch on ‘The Agentic Consumer: Building Trust in the Age of AI Agents.’

In cybersecurity, no one wins alone. Real resilience depends on cooperation. To explore how this collaboration works in practice, the Lisbon Council convened a High-Level Lunch on ‘Resilience by Design: Why Cooperation is Europe’s Cybersecurity Imperative and How to Strengthen Operational and Human Networks.’

The Lisbon Council convened the High-Level Working Lunch on ‘To Ban or Not To Ban: What Scientific Evidence and Practice Teach Us on Kids and Social Media,’ a gathering exploring the best approach to online safety for young people in Europe.

The Lisbon Council convened the High-Level Working Lunch on ‘Privacy-Enhancing Technologies in Digital Advertising,’ an invitation-only gathering on how privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) can help reduce the tradeoffs between competitiveness and privacy.

The Lisbon Council convened the High-Level Working Breakfast on ‘Artificial Intelligence for Scientific Discovery: Delivering the Collaborative AI Powerhouse that Europe Needs,’ to explore how public-private partnerships, data interoperability and talent networks can power responsible AI for scientific discovery.