The Single Market still does not consistently operate as a true home market for companies active across all 27 Member States. Structural barriers continue to prevent companies, consumers and supply chains from fully benefiting from an integrated European market.

A central part of the problem lies within Europe’s own internal market. Remaining barriers, fragmented rules and internal frictions still act like tariffs on European businesses, raising costs, slowing investment and preventing the EU from using the full scale of the Single Market. This is particularly important for innovative companies that need a large, predictable and integrated market to grow.

This session will focus on how Europe can move from political ambition to practical delivery by tackling those barriers. The discussion will align with the Commission’s and Member States’ current focus on removing the most harmful Single Market obstacles, including the so-called “Terrible Ten”. Europe’s challenge is not only creating start-ups, but helping them become scale-ups. Companies can face long delays, complex procedures and heavy administrative requirements when trying to access funding, procurement opportunities or cross-border markets. The discussion will therefore examine how Europe can make the Single Market a stronger platform for growth by improving access to funding, reforming procurement, reducing administrative complexity and making EU initiatives deliver more effectively for companies.

Access to critical raw materials has become a core issue for Europe’s competitiveness, clean transition and economic security. Batteries, grids, clean technologies, defence systems, semiconductors and digital infrastructure all depend on materials that are increasingly exposed to supply-chain pressure, investment uncertainty and geopolitical risk. Recent Commission messages have reinforced the need to treat critical minerals as part of a wider industrial and strategic independence agenda.

This session will focus on how Europe can secure the inputs needed for its industrial future while remaining open, rules-based and connected to trusted partners. The discussion will cover sourcing, processing, recycling, recovery, investment conditions and strategic partnerships, with a particular focus on how Europe can reduce vulnerabilities without closing itself off from global value chains. It will also examine how recycled materials can be better embedded into Europe’s industrial strategy, how recovery and circular value chains can support reindustrialisation, and how Europe can reduce dependence on external inputs while strengthening competitiveness and sustainability.

Europe’s energy transition is now an investment and delivery challenge as much as a policy one. The shift away from fossil fuel imports towards domestic clean energy, grids, storage, flexibility and low-carbon infrastructure can strengthen competitiveness and sovereignty, but only if projects become easier to finance and faster to deliver. Recent discussions have shown that Europe has many of the right technologies and policy tools, while deployment is still slowed by uncertainty, fragmented planning and weak investment conditions.

This session should focus on deployment and industrial needs, besides finance. Energy will be discussed not only as a climate issue, but also as a question of industrial survival. For industry, the central issue is whether Europe can create a durable framework that supports electrification and decarbonisation while keeping production viable inside the Union. The session should connect clean energy investment with industrial competitiveness, the practical availability of energy for sectors that are difficult to decarbonise, public guarantees, ETS revenues and the mobilisation of private capital.

Europe’s renewed tech sovereignty agenda marks a major shift in the EU’s digital policy debate. The question is no longer only whether Europe can regulate technology, but whether it can build, finance, deploy and scale the technologies that will determine its competitiveness, security and strategic autonomy. The Tech Sovereignty Package puts this debate at the centre of the European agenda, bringing together semiconductors, cloud and AI infrastructure, open source, industrial capacity and digital resilience. For Europe, this creates a strategic opportunity: to reduce critical dependencies, strengthen trusted technology markets, support European innovation and make the Single Market a platform for scale.

At the same time, the package raises important questions for business. What does sovereignty mean in practice? Is it about European ownership, trusted providers, operational control, security guarantees, supply-chain resilience or procurement rules? How can Europe strengthen autonomy without closing markets, discouraging investment or creating new fragmentation? How can large global technology companies, European champions, start-ups and industrial users contribute to a more resilient European digital ecosystem? This panel will attempt to examine the opportunities and doubts surrounding the new tech sovereignty agenda and ask how Europe can turn sovereignty into competitiveness rather than protectionism.

Water resilience is becoming a strategic issue for Europe’s economy, industry, agriculture and energy system. Water is essential for industrial production, power generation, clean technology manufacturing, cooling, hydrogen production, data centres, food systems and climate resilience. At the same time, droughts, floods, pollution and ageing infrastructure are creating new risks for businesses, farmers, public authorities and citizens. The EU Water Resilience Strategy places this challenge firmly on the competitiveness agenda, with objectives on water efficiency, infrastructure investment, digitalisation, innovation and preparedness.

The session should make the water, energy and productivity nexus more visible and how Europe can build a water-smart economy. Water should be discussed as an industrial, competitiveness and productivity issue. The discussion should focus on water efficiency, reuse and recycling, infrastructure modernisation, digital solutions, pollution prevention, investment needs and the role of industry in reducing pressure on water resources. It should also examine how technology and digitalisation can improve water management and whether Europe can turn water resilience into a driver of innovation and competitiveness.

Cybersecurity has become a defining test of Europe’s economic resilience. Ransomware, AI-enabled attacks, software vulnerabilities, supply-chain compromises, cloud dependencies and state-sponsored cyber operations are increasingly interconnected, creating risks that can rapidly spread across sectors and value chains.

Europe is now moving from rule-making to implementation. NIS2, the Cyber Resilience Act, the proposed revision of the Cybersecurity Act and the ICT Supply Chain Security Toolbox are introducing more concrete requirements on corporate governance, product security, certification, vulnerability management and supplier-risk assessment. The key question is whether this expanding framework can strengthen security while remaining coherent, proportionate and workable for companies operating across the EU.

This session will examine how businesses can prepare for the next phase of European cyber policy and translate regulatory obligations into operational resilience and competitive advantage. It will address software and ICT supply-chain security, third-country supplier risks, cloud assurance, certification capacity, vulnerability disclosure and incident reporting.

Particular attention will be given to AI as both a defensive tool and a growing attack surface, including risks to sensitive corporate and government information. The discussion will also consider how the EU can support SMEs and start-ups in meeting new requirements without imposing disproportionate costs, limiting innovation or excluding smaller providers from the market.

Democracy is a cornerstone of Europe’s political stability, economic resilience, and long-term competitiveness. Open markets, predictable regulation, independent courts, trusted institutions, free media, and the rule of law all depend on a healthy democratic system. Yet as political fragmentation, institutional distrust, disinformation, social dissatisfaction and cost-of-living pressures grow across Europe, business can no longer assume that the democratic foundations of the European economy will remain stable without active support.

This session explores why democracy matters for business and what role companies can play in strengthening it. It will examine how democratic decline affects investment, innovation, trust, talent and market stability, while also addressing the frustrations business leaders may feel with slow decision-making and political uncertainty. The discussion will also reflect the role of independent media in democratic resilience and the importance of advertising revenue for media outlets. Restrictions on advertising, including possible measures linked to digital regulation, could weaken a key source of revenue for independent media and affect the business model of independent information. The session will also consider how disinformation, information integrity and social dissatisfaction linked to the cost-of-living crisis affect democratic trust and business stability.