The European network for Technology Resilience and Sovereignty: tackling Europe’s digital dependencies

WHEN

3 March I 15:00 - 17:00

WHERE

The Square

TOPICS

Digital

WHEN

3 March I 15:00 - 17:00

WHERE

The Square

TOPICS

Digital

At least 80% of Europe’s digital technologies are imported, predominantly from non-European big tech firms. These dependencies create cascading vulnerabilities across critical infrastructure and the technical stack for AI, limiting Europe’s strategic autonomy and innovative capacity.

The European network for Technology Resilience and Sovereignty (ETRS), launched at the November 2025 Franco-German Digital Sovereignty Summit, encompasses leading think tanks, thought leaders and technical experts to address these dependencies by supporting the creation of:

  • open, interoperable digital infrastructures;
  • digital commons as building blocks for economic growth with European values;
  • public interest technology that offers alternatives to platform monopolies;
  • strategic capabilities that enhance cooperation and competitive positioning;
  • international partnerships with like-minded stakeholders.

Bertelsmann Stiftung and CEPS, both founding partners of the network, will host this invite-only session at Ideas Lab to discuss and present the operational agenda for ETRS in 2026.

15:15 - 16:30

ROOM 206

AI and the future of work: a new division of labour

Recent developments in generative AI have helped to democratise expertise, making knowledge more accessible to a wide range of non-expert workers. Meanwhile, however, many high- and middle skilled occupations continue to experience labour shortages. This lab session will explore how such advancements in AI could be leveraged to redesign jobs and organisations, addressing skill shortages and providing new career paths. (For further background, listen to this CEPS Tech podcast episode)

With:

Enrique Fernandez-Macias, Researcher and coordinating the Employment and Skills team, Joint Research Centre

Marlene de Koning, Director and leading the HR Tech & Digital team, PwC Netherlands

Isabelle Schömann, European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)

Isabella Loaiza Saa, Postdoctoral Associate, MIT Sloan School of Management

Laura Nurski, Associate Research Fellow and Head of Programme on Future of Work, CEPS (moderator)