Escape Forward: Connecting dots beyond the antitrust island Cristina Caffarra picks out the highlights and her key takeaways from the landmark “Rebuilding European Sovereignty” Conference -Brussels 28 January 2026.
Feb 13, 2026
Highlights from a Brussels conference on rebuilding European sovereignty. Discussion of creating a homegrown tech stack and funding AI and deep-tech gigafactories. Calls to break incrementalism, use public procurement as a demand signal, and scale defense robotics and drones. Debate over China strategy, Germany’s pivotal role, and balancing values with transactional industrial policy.
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Break Incrementalism With New Agencies
- Break the incrementalist model and set up new, targeted agencies to fund radical innovation quickly.
- Use pre-competitive funding and dedicated governance to speed deep-tech translation into industry.
Mercedes' 'Rice vs Spaghetti' Cloud Analogy
- Mercedes-Benz mapped decades of workloads and found European sovereign cloud solutions lacked integration and 'glue'.
- The company can pilot limited workloads but needs scalable, globally interoperable sovereign stacks.
Defense Urgency Can Drive Tech Buildout
- Defense feels urgent and can catalyze tech investment, but lacks common political strategy and demand signals.
- Affordable mass in robotics, drones, and commercial IT must be funded through targeted procurement to scale innovation.
