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European Defence & Security Summit 2025

10-11 June

Egmont Palace, Brussels

Powering Up European Defence

The European Defence and Security Summit, co-organised by ASD, aims to prompt action on Europe’s future during a period of profound geopolitical change. 

Three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, war still rages on Europe’s eastern flank. Warnings that Moscow could expand its aggression beyond Ukraine are growing more urgent, and hybrid threats are quickly becoming a daily preoccupation. Meanwhile, conflicts elsewhere in the world generate far reaching consequences, reshaping the security landscape and further exacerbating global instability.

For Europe, this enduring state of crisis comes at a precarious moment. With the result of political developments across the Atlantic now clear, Europe must decide whether it is willing - and able - to take greater responsibility for its own security. A new European Parliament and Commission, as well as crucial budgetary and financial negotiations - amongst other key topics - will shape the bloc’s response. The coming years will reveal whether Europe can assert itself as a strategic actor, transforming current challenges, threats and hostilities into opportunities to take proactive leadership and achieve long-term security.

Among the speakers

Andrius Kubilius
EU Commissioner for Defence & Space
Hadja Lahbib
EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management
Theo Francken
Minister of Defence, Belgium
Lieutenant General Seán Clancy
Chairman-elect, European Union Military Committee
Martin Pfister
Head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport, Swiss Confederation
Gert Jan Koopman
Director General, DG ENEST
Micael Johansson
President and CEO, Saab
Rob Murray
CEO, DSR Bank
Jaap van Etten
CEO, Datenna
Andrea Palasciano
Foreign Policy and Defence Correspondent, Bloomberg
Jan Pie
Secretary General, ASD
Yaroslav Trofimov
Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent, Wall Street Journal
Hugues Lavandier
Senior Partner, Head of Aerospace & Defence, EMEA, McKinsey & Company
Bart Groothuis
Member of the European Parliament
François-Xavier Bellamy
Member of the European Parliament
Costas Mavrides
Member of the European Parliament
Hannah Neumann
Member of the European Parliament
Wouter Beke
Member of the European Parliament
Nicolás Pascual de la Parte
Member of the European Parliament
Niclas Herbst
Member of the European Parliament
Andrey Novakov
Member of the European Parliament
Michał Szczerba
Member of the European Parliament
Tobias Cremer
Member of the European Parliament
Teri Schultz
EU/NATO Reporter

Check the 2025 Agenda

Our mission statement

Our mission is twofold: we aim to bring politics and business together in order to provide them with an opportunity to debate and pursue their common goals, giving a voice to all sides of the debate. The other priority of EBS is to provide European institutions with a platform where they can place their top priorities in the spotlight and advance the development of new pieces of legislation through discussion with a variety of actors and stakeholders.

Arnaud Thysen
Director General

They trust us

Among other: