ESPAS – at the heart of EU foresight
2026 ESPAS Annual Conference
Tuesday 3 November 2026
"Europe 2040: What future for European security?"
Geopolitics, Defence, Energy, Climate, Technology, Economy, Society.
Leading political figures, civil society representatives, think tanks, policy experts and foresight practitioners will come together at this year’s ESPAS annual conference “Europe 2040: What future for European security? ” on 3 November to debate the future of European security in its various aspects with a time horizon of 2040.
The conference, co-hosted by the European Parliament and the European Commission, will provide a unique platform to bring foresight and policymaking together in a European context and offers a timely opportunity to explore new ideas for Europe's future, and to help shape its strategic choices and priorities for the coming decades.
Europe and the world face new and unprecedented challenges. Anticipating and preparing in a structured way for the future is not a choice, but a necessity. The 2024 ESPAS Global Trends Report “Choosing Europe’s Future” highlighted the importance of preparing for the future: “Today, the EU again finds itself in the midst of trends, which, left unattended, could generate interlocking crises at home and abroad”. As we look to the future, this ESPAS conference will seek to stimulate debate and fresh thinking on possible answers to the complexity and disruption we will continue face, and the hard choices ahead for Europe.
ESPAS Horizon Scanning
- Eroding security (infra)structures
- Network literacy
- Personal data as currency
March 2026
- Time policies for sustainability and democracy
- Design for upgradability
- Biobots
November 2025
- Military-Grade Society
- Digital tech giants become state actors
- Green hype bust
July 2025
Strategic Choices for Europe
ESPAS publishes a Global Trends Report every five years in the period leading up to the European elections.
ESPAS Global Trends Report 2019
Global Trends to 2030:
Challenges and Choices for Europe
About ESPAS
Foresight is much more about shaping the future than predicting it.
The European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS) is an inter-institutional EU process promoting foresight and anticipatory governance. It brings together nine EU institutions and bodies including the European Parliament and the European Commission who are committed to thinking longer term about the challenges and opportunities facing Europe and, through foresight, to support policymakers in making their policy choices.
To meet the expectations of citizens and communities, responsible governance is necessary to help prepare better for the future, mitigate major risks and build up capabilities. This is where strategic foresight comes into its own. By mainstreaming foresight techniques and processes in policymaking, Europe can make informed choices about the future and the lives and well-being of its citizens.
Since it was established in the early 2010s, ESPAS has led the way in forging a new culture of foresight in the EU. Many EU institutions, bodies and agencies have now developed their own foresight capacity for better policymaking.
For more information on ESPAS activities and foresight in the European Union, please contact us at ESPAS.Secretariat@europarl.europa.eu.
About ESPAS
An Inter-institutional EU Project
The European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS) is an inter-institutional EU process promoting foresight and anticipatory governance. It brings together nine EU institutions and bodies who are committed to thinking longer term about the challenges and opportunities facing Europe and, through foresight, to support policy-makers to make the right policy choices.
About ORBIS
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