European Data Summit 2026

02.00 pm – Welcome Address

02.10 pm – 02.20 pm Opening Keynotes

Rita Wezenbeek

European Commission

02.20 pm – 03.15 pm Panel I

• The DSA and DMA were designed to avoid the enforcement failures seen in other areas of EU digital regulation. Are we genuinely delivering faster and more effective enforcement, or are familiar bottlenecks already re-emerging?
• Can enforcement fully deliver on the objectives set out in the law, or does it inevitably run up against the complexity of the digital economy?
• Interim measures and service prohibitions – ultima ratio or a realistic option?

Enforcement – Delivering the promise?

Martijn Snoep

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets

Rita Wezenbeek

European Commission

Klaus Müller

Federal Network Agency, Germany

Simonetta Vezzoso
University of Trento

03.15 pm – 03.30 pm Keynote
A Strategic Bridge? – Ireland in the Transatlantic Digital Order

03.30 pm – 04.20 pm Panel II

• When Europe regulates Big Tech, it not only regulates companies but also touches upon core economic interests of the United States. To what extent has platform regulation become politicised?
• How do other policy areas—most notably trade negotiations—influence the pace and direction of regulation and enforcement?

Holding the Giants Accountable: Big Tech, Trade Deals & Regulation

Natalie Harsdorf

Federal Competition Authority, Austria

Alberto Bacchiega

European Commission

Cori Crider

Future of Tech Institute, Barcelona

Samuel Stolton

Bloomberg

04.20 pm – 04.45 pm Coffee Break

04.45 pm – 05.30 pm Panel III

• How could structural measures in the platform economy—including potential breakups—help anchor the principles of the social market economy in the digital age?
• Can breakups of dominant platforms foster greater innovation, and if so, how?
• To what extent could breakups reduce the need for continuous regulatory oversight in the platform economy?

Breakups & Breakthroughs: Can Structural Remedies Boost Innovation?

Damien Geradin

Geradin Partners

Wolfgang Oels

Ecosia

Jens-Uwe Franck

University of Mannheim

Cori Crider (Moderator)

Future of Tech Institute, Barcelona

05.30 pm – 06.15 pm Panel IV

• If a major systemic risk were to materialise tomorrow—for example, large-scale manipulation during an election—would the current DSA enforcement framework allow you to respond quickly and decisively enough?
• Can the DSA genuinely mitigate the impact of disinformation on democratic processes, or are platforms still structurally incentivised to amplify it?
• Are we regulating recommender systems—or merely auditing what platforms choose to disclose about them?
• How can we move towards data access as a research mechanism rather than merely an administrative procedure?

Systemic Risks & Platform Recommender Systems

Johnny Ryan

Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Enforce

Julia Marquier

Federal Network Agency, Germany

Prabhat Agarwal

European Commission

Mauritius Dorn

ISD Germany

Lena Maria Böswald (Moderator)

Interface

06.15 pm – 06.25 pm Keynote
Navigating the Giants: Europe’s New Approach to Digital Sovereignty

Hansjörg Durz

MP, CDU/CSU

06.25 pm – 06:40 pm - Tech Dependence: The Cost of Weakened Democracies - Fireside Chat with

Sasha Havlicek & Felix Kartte

CEO of the ISD Policy advisor, strategist and writer

06.40 pm – 07.00 pm Coffee Break

07.00 pm – 07.10 pm Keynote
Strategy and Tactics: European Digital Sovereignty

Ben Scott

Reset Tech

07.10 pm – 07.50 pm Panel V

• Online fraud has become scalable, automated, and increasingly AI-driven. Have platforms become critical infrastructure for fraud ecosystems?
• Do we need a shift towards infrastructure-style regulation, similar to energy or telecom sectors?
• Where should we draw the line between entrepreneurial freedom and systemic responsibility for harms that scale on platforms?
• From your perspective, what is failing in the current regulatory approach?
• Do we need to intervene more directly in platform incentive structures, for example in targeted advertising or monetisation models?

Scams at Scale: When Digital Platforms Become the Infrastructure

Ralph Brinkhaus

MP, CDU/CSU

Damian Collins

former UK Tech Minister & MP / Geradin Partners

Ben Scott

Reset Tech

Carolina Melches (Moderator)

Finanzwende

07.50 pm – 08.30 pm Panel VI

• Big tech firms expand into European financial markets. What are the implications for financial stability and fair competition?
• Do their data-driven business models constitute an (unfair) competitive advantage vis a vis traditional players?
• What are the implications for European sovereignty and possible policy responses with regard to competition policy?

Market Power in European Finance: Who’s in Control?

Rupert Schaefer
Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin)

Johannes Ehrentraud

Bank for International Settlements, Basel

Thomas Weck

Frankfurt School of Finance

Carolina Melches

Finanzwende

Elisabeth Nöfer (Moderator)
Stiftung Mercator

08.30 pm Get together & Reception

10.00 am – 11.00 am Keynote and Panel I

• The Digital Omnibus is presented as simplification, but many argue it could reshape core GDPR concepts. Is this reform about making GDPR work better, or making it less strict?
• Where is the red line between legitimate simplification and a rollback of fundamental rights?
• The GDPR draws a clear red line around special categories of data, such as health or political opinions. Do current simplification efforts risk eroding these heightened protections in practice?

GDPR Reform: Unlocking Data or Unlocking Pandora’s Box?

Max Schrems

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David Diehl

The Federal Ministry of the Interior

Johnny Ryan

Irish Council for Civil Liberties, enforce

Mathias Cellarius

SAP

Júlia Tar

Data privacy and security reporter, MLex (Moderator)

11.00 am – 11.50 pm Keynote & Panel II

• Is the Omnibus helping to build a coherent European data framework, or does it risk adding further complexity that industry cannot realistically navigate?

• Despite strong policy support, the uptake of data intermediaries has been relatively limited so far. Is this a design problem, a market problem, or a trust problem—and is the Digital Omnibus the right corrective?
• If open data is meant to fuel European innovation and competitiveness, is the current reform ambitious enough to unlock that potential

Björn Juretzki
European Commission

Digital Omnibus: Ambitious Step or Room for Improvement

Philipp Stammler

The Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation
Michael Dose
Federation of German Industries (BDI)

Jochen Reinschmidt

Association of the Electrical and Digital Industry (ZVEI)

Andrea-Sanders Winter

Federal Network Agency, Germany

Carla Dietmair (Moderator)
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11.50 am – 12:00 am - Europe’s Captured Tech Market — How Do We Break Free? 

A tremendous amount of money is flowing into AI, driven by the pursuit of 'AI sovereignty.'  Yet, most of these funds end up in the hands of the incumbents. Why is this? And what could we do differently?

Fireside Chat with

Leevi Saari
Ai now institute

Frederike Kaltheuner

Strategic Advisor

12.00 pm – 12.45 pm Lunch & Networking

12.45 pm – 01.30 pm Keynote and Panel III

• Is the Digital Markets Act fundamentally ill-suited to regulate cloud markets, given its reliance on a two-sided platform logic that does not reflect the vertical integration of hyperscalers?
• Are cloud and AI marketplaces the structural point at which hyperscaler power becomes fully visible and legally actionable under the DMA?
• Can a principle of “cloud neutrality” realistically be enforced under the Digital Markets Act?
• Are existing DMA obligations (e.g. on data access and portability) sufficient to tackle cloud lock-in, or do they need to be recalibrated for infrastructure-level dependencies?

Antonio Manganelli
Cerre / University of Siena

Gatekeepers in the Cloud? Can the DMA Deliver for Europe’s Digital Infrastructure?

Alberto Bacchiega

European Commission

Thorsten Käseberg

Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy

Cori Crider (Moderator)
Future of Tech Institute

01.30 pm – 02.20 pm Keynote and Panel IV

Robin Berjon
EuroSky

Digital Public Infrastructure - the Social Media Issue

Felix Styma

iconomy

Sebastian Vogelsang

EuroSky

Tobias B. Bacherle

Future of Tech Institute

Lena Maria Böswald (Moderator)

Interface

02.20 pm – 02.40 pm Break

02.40 pm – 03.30 pm Keynote and Panel V

In the context of the ongoing debate on technological sovereignty and strategic resilience, the question increasingly arises: how can Europe strengthen its innovation and growth capacity without jeopardizing the openness of the Single Market?

• What are the possibilities of public procurement as an industrial policy tool? Can public demand act as an anchor customer?

• Where is the debate heading after recent initiatives such as the Industrial Accelerator Act—towards stricter ‘Made in Europe’ requirements, or a more open ‘Made with Europe’ approach?
• Is it possible to establish binding criteria for sovereign European providers at the EU level? Do we have common understanding of the notion “sovereign” ?

• What are the risks of implementing preference schemes?

Invest in Europe: Digital Sovereignty as a Competitive Advantage

Kristina Sinemus
Minister for Digital Strategy and Innovation, Hessen

A Common Approach to EU Preference Schemes?

Martin Peitz

University of Mannheim

Aurélien Palix
Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, France

Felix Zimmermann
The Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation

Benjamin Kay-Hilmar Hinz (Moderator)
Saarland University

03.30 pm – 04.20 pm Panel VI

Cloud computing has become critical infrastructure — economically, technologically, and geopolitically. Yet Europe’s market structure remains highly fragmented, access to capital is uneven, and hyperscale advantages are increasingly difficult to match.

• Are European cloud providers unable to offer what customers need? Or are anticompetitive dynamics — vendor lock-in, bundling, belowmarket pricing, egress fees — the core reason European providers can't compete?
• Can European providers serve the unique requirements of large-scale AI training and inference?
• Can European cloud providers achieve meaningful scale under current market and procurement conditions?
• Does Europe need a coordinated industrial strategy for cloud, and what would effective procurement reform actually look like in practice?

Scaling Europe’s Cloud Infrastructure: Independence, Investment, and Impact

Achim Weiss
IONOS

Bernd Wagner

Schwarz Digits I STACKIT

Frederike Kaltheuner (Moderator)
AI, geopolitics, global tech policy | Strategic Advisor

04.20 pm – 04.45 pm Break

04.45 pm – 05.15 pm Keynote and Panel VII

• How do vendor-specific certifications shape today’s digital skills ecosystem and market demand?
• Are we witnessing a form of “digital colonization through skills,” where talent pipelines reinforce long-term dependency?
• Can Europe realistically rebalance its workforce away from vendor-specific skills, or is dependency already too entrenched?

Beyond Tech Stacks: Skills & Certifications - From Vendor Skills to Sovereign Capacity?

Francesco Bonfiglio
Entrepreneur, Expert in Digital Transformation

Sebastiano Toffatelli
European DIGITAL SME Alliance

Maria Letizia Giorgetti
University of Milan

05.15 pm - 05.45 pm Panel VIII

• There is currently both a demand-side and a supply-side problem in European digital solutions.
• Demand can be activated through a “buy European” approach, while supply is now structured and made visible through the Eurostack Catalogue.
• The starting point is a simple but critical question: what happens if a hyperscaler shuts you down? 

The panel will present the first concrete use case: the Eurostack Disaster Recovery Pack, designed as a pragmatic first step toward digital sovereignty.

Sell European - Tech Sovereignty Catalogue &

The First Eurostack Disaster Recovery Pack

Alessandro Cillario

Cubbit Srl, Italy

Holger Pfister

Suse, Germany

Gabriele Fronzè
Elemento Modular Cloud, Italy

Boyan Ivanov

Storpool, Bulgaria

05.45 pm Get together & Reception