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HOW EUROPE WINS

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

Impressions

"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 (24.08.-04.09.2026) explored 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.

Academy Days (24-30 August 2026)

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.

Euregio Days (28-30 August 2026)

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.

These encounters reveal how regional constellations scale to Europe’s collective agency: not through mandates from above, but through collaboration rooted in everyday realities and emerging opportunities.

Conference Days (30 August-4 September 2026)

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.

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.

MON | Capability & Renewal: Mobilising Europe's Power to Act

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.

TUE | Finance & Trust: Funding Europe’s New Promise

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.

WED | Technology & Society: Developing Europe’s Next Infrastructure

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.

THR | Envisioning the Europe We Build

The global order is being rewritten: By force, by markets, by technology, and by the sheer ambition of other civilisational projects. Europe's response cannot be to imitate any of them. Europe's strength lies elsewhere: in the deliberate, conscious choice to build a civilisational model on its own terms. Its future is based on self-efficacy - how does Europe foster its capacity to act from conviction, determined that its choices matter, and how does it cultivate the institutional and intellectual readiness to make them?

The four EFA tracks (Democracy & the Rule of Law, Climate, Finance & Economy, Security) address Europe’s most pressing challenges in various sessions. 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 & 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.

In Alpbach, art creates encounters across cultures, generations and disciplines. Artistic multiplicity is one of the many ways Europe wins.

To the EFA26 Arts & Culture Programme.

Relive the highlights of EFA26: 4,800 participants, 185 partners, and an Alpbach Manifesto with a shared vision for Europe’s future under the theme “How Europe Wins.”