Across Europe and beyond, democratic backsliding raises pressing questions not only for governments but also for investors, employers and businesses. Judicial independence, transparent governance and the rule of law provide the certainty that markets and companies rely upon. As these foundations come under pressure, the cost of neutrality is rising: regulatory unpredictability, politicised enforcement and reputational exposure increasingly affect the bottom line. This panel asks whether business should take a more active role in defending democratic values, where companies should draw the line between commercial interests and civic responsibility, and how the private sector can contribute to democratic resilience while maintaining public trust and political legitimacy.

Public debate has become one of the main battlegrounds of Europe’s democratic crisis. Contested policy debates, from climate to migration, are increasingly weaponised through narratives of delay, doubt and division that mix legitimate concerns about cost and fairness with false claims, conspiracy theories and anti-establishment anger. When citizens are told that mainstream policy is an elite project imposed against them, the space for democratic compromise narrows and hostility towards public authorities becomes easier to justify.

New technologies sit at the centre of this shift. Artificial intelligence, online platforms and algorithmic amplification shape how citizens inform themselves, what they trust and how they participate, and they can either strengthen democratic debate or accelerate its erosion through disinformation, deepfakes and declining confidence in independent media. An independent, free and pluralistic press, under growing economic and political pressure, remains essential to keeping this space open.

This panel will examine how political actors, foreign influence operations and platforms use disinformation and technology to distort public debate, and how business should respond, given that companies depend on policy stability, social trust, the rule of law and predictable investment conditions. It will ask how Europe can defend open democratic debate while sustaining a trusted information environment and a healthy media ecosystem.

Europe’s economic success is built on more than innovation and investment. It rests on stable democratic institutions, the rule of law, trusted global partnerships, regulatory certainty and public trust. As geopolitical tensions rise and democracies face growing internal and external pressures, business increasingly recognises that democratic resilience and trust are not only a political concern but an economic imperative for predictability and investments. At the same time, complex and globally integrated value chains make global collaboration with trusted partners essential for innovation, especially for new technologies like AI.This panel will examine how trust-based collaboration with businesses can help democracies boost competitiveness and adopt new technologies while upholding security, accountability, and public trust. It will explore how Europe can safeguard the democratic foundations that underpin its competitiveness, and what role business should play in protecting the stability and predictability on which long-term investment depends. That case is most concrete where capital is committed for the long term, such as for industrial plants, energy supply, data centres and AI capacity. The panel will draw on the experience of companies and investors making those commitments in Europe today, and ask what they need from European democracies in return.

Across Europe, the cost-of-living crisis has become one of the most powerful drivers of democratic discontent. Housing that is increasingly out of reach, high energy bills and stagnant real incomes leave many citizens feeling that the economy, and the institutions that govern it, no longer work for them. That sense of insecurity feeds distrust, fuels support for anti-system politics and narrows the space for the long-term reform a stable economy requires.

For business, this is not a distant social question. Political volatility, abrupt policy reversals and declining trust raise regulatory uncertainty, complicate long-term investment and expose companies to reputational and operational risk. Emerging EU initiatives on affordability and housing, including the forthcoming work on an Affordable Housing Act, signal that economic security is moving to the centre of the democratic agenda.

This panel will examine how the affordability and cost of living crisis is reshaping democratic politics, and what role business can play in restoring a sense of economic fairness and stability. It will ask how public institutions, employers and investors can work together so that economic security once again underpins, rather than undermines, confidence in Europe’s democratic model, including how the gains from new technologies are shared.