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How Europe Wins

The European Forum Alpbach 2026 will take place from 24 August to 4 September 2026.

Theme

Modules

Focus Topics

Tracks

Can Europe still win on the decisive issues?

"How Europe Wins" is not a ready-made answer – it is an invitation to rethink Europe's strategies and, at the same time, an urgent call to follow up ideas with action.

In a world where everyone else seems to be acting faster and more decisively, Europe faces fundamental questions: Is Europe currently on the road to victory? Can Europe still win on the decisive issues? If so, alone or with which partners? Does someone have to lose for Europe to win? What is Europe missing to be a born winner – and what do we already have? And what game is being played anyway?

The European Forum Alpbach 2026 will explore these questions – with voices from politics, science, business and culture, with young thinkers and experienced decision-makers. Because the invitation and call for answers and action is addressed to everyone. No one can afford to remain in the status quo.

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Speakers at EFA26

Explore some of the confirmed and to be confirmed (tbc) speakers of the European Forum Alpbach 2026.

Martin Kocher

Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Professor at the University of Vienna

Burkhard Balz

Member of the Executive Board of the German National Bank (DBB)

Peter Hanke

Federal Minister for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure, Austria

Anne Applebaum (tbc)

Pulitzer Prize winner, journalist, and historian

Salome Zourabichvili (tbc)

5th President of Georgia

Peter Bosek

Chief Executive Officer, Erste Group

Mairéad McGuinness

EU Special Envoy for the Promotion of Freedom of Religion or Belief outside the European Union

Radek Sikorski (tbc)

Foreign Minister, Republic of Poland

Clara Raposo

Deputy Governor, Bank of Portugal, Professor, ISEG Lisbon School of Economics

Yascha Mounk

Professor of Practice at Johns Hopkins University

Joseph E. Stiglitz

Nobel Laureate, Economist, Public Policy Analyst and Professor at Columbia University

Magnus Brunner

EU-Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration

Lea Ypi

Professor of Politics and Philosophy, London School of Economics

Rhiannon McQuone

Research Associate, More in Common UK

Věra Jourová

Advisor to the Czech President on foreign policy, fmr EU-Commissioner for Values & Transparency

Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer

Federal Minister of Labour and Economy, Austria

Norbert Totschnig

Federal Minister for Agriculture, Forestry, Climate, Regions, Water Management, Austria

Gernot Wagner (tbc)

Climate Economist at the Columbia Business School

Ivan Krastev

Albert Hirschman Permanent Fellow, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM Vienna)

Claudia Bauer (fmr. Plakolm)

Federal Minister for Europe, Integration and Family in the Federal Chancellery, Austria

Christoph Wiederkehr

Federal Minister of Education, Austria

Beate Meinl-Reisinger

Federal Minister for European and International Affairs, Austria

Iara Lee

Film Producer, Director and Activist, Founder of the Cultures of Resistance Network

Modules

Academy Days: Building Europe’s Intellectual Commons

The Academy Days provide the intellectual foundation of the EFA. Through the new studio format and a shift to block structures, participants gain the space to think beyond immediate pressures and explore Europe’s long-term questions.

At stake is Europe’s capacity to cultivate knowledge, imagination, and a collaborative skillset. The Academy Days create an environment where reflection, exchange, and community-building strengthen the ability to anticipate challenges and shape the future with purpose.

Academy Days Structure

The Academy Days feature seminars and studios, labs with intensive workshops tackling European challenges, and the Alpbach in Motion Leadership Lab.

Scholarship holders and participants choose either two seminars or two studios. Seminars run for half a day over five days, with scientific seminars in the morning and art and skill seminars in the afternoon, designed to broaden perspectives and foster personal growth. Studios are intensive, method-focused formats that encourage engagement with complex questions. Each studio runs for 2.5 days in a block format and focuses on a single topic.

Since each studio and seminar's content builds on the previous day, participants can choose two in total.

Euregio Days: Expanding Europe Through Regional Constellations

The Euregio Days bring Europe into focus at a regional level, where cooperation becomes tangible and diverse perspectives meet. By extending EFA formats across additional European regions, they open new spaces for cross-border dialogue and shared problem-solving.

Conference Days: Converging Perspectives, Creating European Momentum

The Conference Days concentrate the module into a single, coherent experience. Each day revolves around one focus topic presented on the Main Stage and deepened through a corresponding networking event.

By bringing insights, actors, and ambitions together, the Conference Days help Europe move from reflection to direction. A strengthened closing session highlights the key outcomes and sets the stage for the next EFA cycle.

Euregio Days

Friday, 28 August 2026

Business and Science

Friday opens the Euregio Days with a clear economic focus, addressing key questions around regional competitiveness, innovation, and labour market development. A “practice breakfast”, a technology brunch, and inputs from the young Industry create space for exchange and fresh ideas. In addition, the European Universities Alliances demonstrate how research and knowledge transfer contribute to strengthening regional resilience.

Saturday, 29 August 2026

Euregio Awards and European Regional Politics

On Saturday, the spotlight is on young researchers and innovative companies. The Euregio-Awards recognise research projects and innovations that contribute to fostering strong regions. Representatives of the Committee of the Regions add a European perspective on cross-border cooperation, with a focus on both municipal and regional partnerships.

Sunday, 30 August 2026

Tyrol Day and the Euregio Summit

The Tyrol Day marks the thematic highlight of the Euregio Days. Experts and decision-makers discuss regional development, the importance of regions for a strong Europe, and the role of the Euregio Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino. The Euregio Days conclude with a networking get-together, where local traditions meet the European spirit.

Tickets

Participation in the Euregio Days is free of charge, although you will need an admission ticket.

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Focus Topics

Throughout the Conference Days, the Main Stage in the afternoon explores one of the four focus topics in greater depth, featuring prominent speakers who contribute their respective perspectives.

Europe will not win the future if it cannot act together. The question is no longer whether reforms are needed, but whether Europe can renew the institutional foundations that enable action in the first place. This focus topic explores what it means for Europe to regain the power to decide in a world defined by speed, uncertainty, and geopolitical competition. It pushes beyond the familiar debate about qualified majority voting and examines deeper structural questions: Are we attempting to govern the 21st century with institutions designed for the 17th? What forms of agility, subsidiarity, and accountability must emerge if Europe is to be more than a reactive force in global affairs?

Mobilising Europe’s power to act is not a technical exercise in institutional engineering: It is a question of political imagination and civic courage. What does a renewed European capability look like? How do we build institutions that not only manage crises, but actively enable ambition? And how can Europe cultivate a culture of decision-making that is both democratic and decisive? This focus topic opens a conversation about Europe’s operating system; and what it must become if Europe wishes to lead, not follow.

Budget negotiations may appear technocratic, but they determine Europe’s ability to deliver on its promise. Behind every line of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) lies a contest over priorities, values, and the meaning of European solidarity. This focus topic examines how Europe allocates its collective resources—and what these decisions reveal about our shared future. Funding Europe’s “new promise” means recognising that investment is not just about money: it is about trust between generations, between member states, and between citizens and their institutions.

At stake is nothing less than Europe’s capacity to act coherently in an era of climate transformation, technological acceleration, and geopolitical instability. How do we build financial architectures that enable long-term resilience rather than short-term compromise? How do we ensure that the allocation of resources strengthens social cohesion instead of eroding it? This focus topic invites a deeper reflection on what Europe chooses to fund, why it matters, and how these choices shape our collective trajectory. To finance Europe’s future is to define what Europe stands for.

Europe’s ability to “win” in a rapidly changing world will depend on more than industrial strength or faster innovation cycles. It will depend on whether Europe can build the infrastructure of a sovereign society: one that is capable of shaping its own future. This focus topic explores what Europe must design, rebuild, and reimagine to remain master of its own fate: from energy systems that are resilient and interconnected, to data and compute infrastructures that underpin trust and autonomy, to technologies that reinforce rather than undermine the dignity of democratic life.

Developing Europe’s next infrastructure is therefore not only a technical question, but a civilizational one. What does a “good society” in 2026 require in order to thrive? Which technologies expand our collective freedom, creativity, and preparedness—and which ones constrain them? This focus topic challenges us to think beyond short-term fixes and instead to confront the long arc of European futurability: the capacity to anticipate challenges, build strategically, and equip the next generation with the tools needed to shape, not merely endure, the decades ahead.

This fourth focus topic remains intentionally open and responsive to real-world developments in 2026, allowing the Forum to address the most urgent and meaningful shifts shaping Europe’s position in the world. Yet at its core, it asks a simple, profound question: What does it mean to envision Europe today? Envisioning is not prediction – it is the ability to make sense of complexity, to open spaces for possibility, and to create meaning through collective action.

As Europe confronts new geopolitical realities, societal tensions, and technological disruptions, this focus topic explores how imagination becomes a strategic capability. How do we cultivate the foresight, creativity, and intellectual courage required to navigate uncertainty? And how can Europe move from envisioning to enabling, turning insight into initiative, and possibility into purpose? This focus topic provides the Forum with the flexibility to respond to new events while anchoring the programme in one of EFA’s enduring strengths: the capacity to bring generations together to reimagine the future of Europe.

Tracks

During the Conference Days, the tracks address Europe’s most pressing challenges in various sessions and engage with the focus topics from their perspectives. This creates a diverse and interdisciplinary exchange.

Climate

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are defining challenges of this century. Europe has made a commitment to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Reaching climate targets and exercising global leadership is becoming ever more challenging in light of a shifting political focus. Cross-sector and border collaboration and a focus on the economic opportunities of the transition are urgently needed. Europe must act and implement with greater unity than ever before, capturing hearts and minds, and transforming markets as it does.

Finance & Economy

The European economy is facing a number of challenges caused by geopolitical shifts, technological advances and climate change. Long-standing deficiencies such as slow growth, rising unemployment, stagnating productivity and demographic pressures further jeopardise Europe's prosperity. The Finance and Economy track explores possible solutions to these multifaceted challenges that threaten Europe's role in the world, aiming to strengthen its competitiveness and secure the financing of its future prosperity.

Security

The rise of military conflicts, dynamic shifts in Europe’s neighborhood, and the new U.S. administration coupled with the emergence of new blocs, induce a disintegration of global governance. This necessitates a reassessment of multilateral institutions and the international security framework. Europe must assert itself as a strategic actor by enhancing its geopolitical influence, boosting security and defence, and reducing dependencies. The new geopolitical reality demands a decisive, unified EU response to navigate an increasingly fragmented global landscape.

Democracy and the Rule of Law

After decades of expansion, democracy is in a worldwide decline. Liberal democracy is on the defensive under internal and external pressure. We are witnessing polarisation and the rise of populism and authoritarian politics. Disinformation and deep mistrust in governments and media are crucial factors. Democratic institutions and processes must be strengthened. Global alliances of democratic states, civil society and experts need to mobilise to develop solutions suited to today’s information and technology context.

Get your ticket for EFA26!

Tickets

Further programme details will be released in spring 2026.

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