Geopolitical fragmentation is no longer a background condition; it is reshaping Europe’s growth model, investment priorities, and risk assumptions. Strategic autonomy now spans energy security, critical supply chains, technological leadership, defence-readiness, and the resilience of infrastructure and industry.

But Europe’s ability to act in this environment depends on its ability to finance at scale, mobilising long-term capital while remaining open, interconnected, and credible to global investors. That means not only having priorities but also having financing pathways that turn priorities into projects: bank capacity, institutional capital, and market depth.

This session examines the strategic trade-offs at the heart of Europe’s agenda. How do firms and financial institutions judge competitiveness when other major markets move faster and finance scale more easily? What does “de-risking” mean in practice without tipping into costly fragmentation? And how can Europe strengthen its capacity to fund and retain growth, so that innovation scales in Europe, and ownership and listing decisions are not structurally pulled elsewhere?

As Europe competes fiercely for global capital, what conditions must be met for international investors to choose the EU? This interview will explore the realities of global capital flows and the imperatives for regulatory coherence, particularly regarding alignment with other jurisdictions. We examine the strategic adjustments Europe must make to ensure its market remains deeply interconnected with, rather than isolated from, the established markets of the US and the dynamic growth centres of Asia.

Europe has spent years debating how to progress the Capital Markets Union; the SIU raises the stakes by demanding delivery. Fragmentation still limits citizens’ access to growth assets and prevents companies, from SMEs to industrial champions, from raising capital across borders with the simplicity and speed the economy now requires.

This session drills into the “plumbing”: the regulatory, supervisory, and market-structure reforms needed to mobilise savings into productive investment at scale. It will examine what implementation really means – supervisory convergence, retail participation incentives, smoother cross-border flows, the role of market infrastructure, and the practical steps that reduce complexity for firms trying to finance growth.

It will also tackle the credibility question at the heart of reform: can Europe simplify rules while strengthening stability, and avoid building a system that is safer on paper but less investable in practice?

Europe’s digital transition is no longer a question of adoption; it is a question of strategic capacity. As AI accelerates and tokenisation moves from pilots to production, Europe must decide how to compete in the global digital asset landscape while protecting financial stability, consumer trust, and economic sovereignty. This lunch session explores the next frontier: payments innovation, tokenised securities, regulated stablecoins, and AI-enabled financial services, and what it would take for Europe to lead, not simply regulate. Scaling EU digital capital markets now requires urgent action on legal harmonisation and higher DLT thresholds, a momentum reflected in the recent digital assets own-initiative (INI) report and the consultation on the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), which precludes its review in 2027. A central thread will be the evolving role of digital assets within the European financial landscape. This includes a discussion of how the evolving roles of tokenised deposits, stablecoins, and wholesale settlement solutions in financial markets might impact market resilience and reliance on non-European infrastructure. By exploring these different instruments, the session will consider how Europe can foster innovation atop robust, interoperable infrastructure while remaining globally competitive.