2026 Strategic Foresight Report

The Federation of Aluminium Consumers in Europe (FACE) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the 2026 Strategic Foresight Report. Since its founding in 1999, FACE has spent 25 years defending the interests of independent downstream aluminium transformers, consumers and end users.

Culture Action Europe is calling on the European Commission to mainstream culture into the 2026 Strategic Foresight Report. The 2026 report represents an opportunity to embrace the transformative power of arts and culture for creativity and innovation, as outlined in the Culture Compass for Europe, and the vital role that culture plays in shifting from a reactive approach to policy-making towards a more…

The Centre for Future Generations (CFG) is a Brussels-based think tank focused on emerging technologies. Our work bridges technical expertise and policy analysis to ensure powerful emerging technologies serve both current and future generations. Europe is navigating one of its most turbulent periods in decades geopolitically, technologically, and environmentally.

Christian Council International (CCI) appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback on the call for evidence for the Strategic Foresight Report 2026. In the attached document, we provide evidence on three key leverage points for the EU: the family, traditional heritage, and self-reliance.

Recent geopolitical and economic shifts underline the need for the EU to act with greater focus, confidence and foresight. Rather than trying to excel at everything, Europe can strengthen its longterm position by concentrating effort where it has the highest chances of success, building on existing strengths and values, flourishing our prosperity.

The feedback from ENfCIGS and Wilde Ganzen responds to the EU foresight question on future areas of leverage by affirming the shift beyond hard power and emphasising that EU influence is also relational, civic and normative.

This document, prepared by the University of Florence within the SPES project, provides strategic feedback and findings intended for the EU 2026 Strategic Foresight Report. It addresses the urgent need for the European Union to move Beyond GDP by adopting a broader narrative that prioritizes resilience, sustainability, and societal well-being over standard economic paradigm and related metrics.

The EUs influence will depend less on ambition than on credibility, reliability and partnerships that deliver for all. Three strategic choices matter: 1. Credibility through coherence and consistency: align internal and external action on rights, civic space and democratic governance; avoid double standards. 2.

The 2025 Strategic Foresight Report highlights biotechnology several times as a transformative technology area with the potential to strengthen Europes economic resilience, strategic autonomy, and green transition. Building on this foundation, the 2026 report provides an opportunity dive deeper and elevate biosolutions and biomanufacturing as a strategic priority.

The European Union has a unique opportunity to strengthen its long-term global influence through environmental priorities, technological foresight, and an adaptive approach to systemic crises. In the context of acknowledging the triple planetary crisis, the EU is in many respects a relatively isolated actor; precisely for this reason, it should strategically build on this position on scientifically grounded rather…

Over a billion times a day, retailers and wholesalers distribute goods and provide an essential service to millions of businesses and individual customers. The sector generates 1 in 7 jobs, offering a varied career to 26 million Europeans, many of them young people. It also supports millions of further jobs throughout the supply chain, from small local suppliers to international businesses.

The Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) welcomes the EU Public Consultation launched in preparation for the 2026 Strategic Foresight Report. ANNDs input is grounded in the understanding that producing genuinely new, transformative insights and imagining alternative futures must begin with changing the present and nurturing the conditions required for such futures to emerge.

The Committee on the Future of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter ‘the Committee’) provides comments and suggestions for an initiative published by the European Commission (hereinafter ‘the Commission’) for the 2026 Strategic Foresight Report.

Filed in Lithuanian · English published by the European Commission

The EUs Long-Term Role in an Uncertain World Global politics has become increasingly unpredictable, marked by declining trust not only among rival states but also among allies and like-minded countries. The erosion of alliances, including NATO, and the weakening of value-based diplomacy have reduced predictability and pushed states toward greater self-reliance.

The Association of German Banks welcomes the Commissions commitment to strategic foresight and, recognizing the urgency of defining Europe's long-term role amidst shifting global power dynamics, submits this contribution to the Call for Evidence.

The European Commissions consultation on their 2026 Strategic Foresight Report comes at a moment of accelerating geopolitical tensions, particularly in science and technology. Strategic foresight is now a geopolitical imperative it strengthens the EUs capacity to strategise and adapt to emerging challenges. This submission highlights that science diplomacy is a high-impact leverage area for the EU.

Towards an EU Industrial Diplomacy Contribution to the 2026 EU Strategic Foresight Report (3,500 characters) The European Union is entering a decisive decade in which its prosperity, security and global relevance will depend on its capacity to shape industrial transformation both internally and externally.

Much of the EUs work to re-strengthen the Unions global clout will have to be engineered at home. The EU and its member states need to prove they can take decisive action based on the Draghi Report (2024) to regain competitiveness in a radically changing global environment.

On behalf of the Horizon Europe research project MAPS (Models, Assessment, and Policies for Sustainability (GA No. 101137914), we welcome the European Commissions initiative to collect evidence for the 2026 Strategic Foresight Report. MAPS explores transformative policy pathways that achieve equitable human wellbeing while respecting Earths environmental limits.

Which areas of leverage (especially those that are new or so far unexploited) could help the EU shape its long-term role in the world? The EU plays a globally leading role in the fight against transnational organized crime, both within its borders as well as in other world regions through external support programs.

The 2026 Strategic Foresight Report starts from a realistic assessment that the international and internal context of the European Union’s action has changed significantly and that the current models of stability, growth and interdependence can no longer be the basis for long-term strategic planning.

Filed in Croatian · English published by the European Commission

The European Union faces a geopolitical environment characterised by shifting alliances, contested norms, weaponised dependencies and systemic global challenges. This break from the post WWII multilateral order requires Europe not to retreat, but to become far more strategic in shaping its global position. The EU can shape its long term role through five mutually reinforcing avenues: 1.

As Belgiums agency for international cooperation, Enabel contributes to the European Unions long-term global role by translating policy priorities into concrete action on the ground, in close partnership with governments, civil society and international actors.

The long-term role of the EU is arguably rooted in its ability to create new leverage against the threats of our times. Similar to how the Brussels Effect was based on the strength of the Single Market to export norms and rules, the EU needs to find its new place inside a world where the size and power of the single market alone is no longer enough to play a critical role internationally.

UAP Coalition Netherlands supports the Commissions effort to strengthen EU resilience in a rapidly fragmenting global order by identifying new leverage areas and shaping credible long-term narratives. We propose that frontier science and aerospace domain awarenessspecifically the systematic, scientific study of unidentified anomalous phenomenarepresent an underexploited strategic opportunity, with potential benefits…

In the face of a rapidly changing and increasingly complex and fragmented global reality, the European Union’s long-term position on the international scene depends not only on its ability to project power externally, but also on its internal resilience, cohesion and democratic legitimacy.

Filed in Polish · English published by the European Commission

The European Marine Board (EMB) takes this opportunity to highlight the strategic importance of the Ocean, and Ocean science and innovation, in shaping the EUs role in a changing and uncertain world. As presented in our marine science-policy foresight publication Navigating the Future VI (https://www.marineboard.eu/publications/nfvi), the Ocean plays a crucial role in Earths interconnected systemsclimate…

Drawing on recent foresight work Spatial Foresight has conducted for various regions in the EU, below our answer to the 2 questions. Leverages that could shape the EUs role in the world? A key yet underused source of EU strategic autonomy lies in its territorial diversity.

How can the EU shape its long-term role in a rapidly changing and uncertain world? The EU is operating in a world shaped by power politics, securitisation, and transactional deals. Norms are no longer assumed, they are contested. In this context, the EU faces a strategic choice about the kind of actor it seeks to be over the long term. Shaping this requires clear choices.

In a rapidly changing and increasingly fragmented global context, the European Unions long-term role in the world will depend on its internal capacity for resilience, cohesion and democratic legitimacy. Strategic autonomy, competitiveness and global credibility are ultimately grounded in the Unions territorial, societal and governance foundations.

Anatomies and Dynamics of the Society-Mechanism: Among Myths of Simplification, Facilitation, and Disintermediation ️ https://academia.edu/resource/work/121248616 FROM SIMPLIFICATION TO FACILITATION** More and more frequently, social discourses on the principle of inclusivity are used to justify a veritable ideology of facilitation.

In a rapidly changing and increasingly fragmented global context, the EUs long-term role in the world will depend not only on its external power projection, but also on its internal capacity for resilience, cohesion and democratic legitimacy. Strategic autonomy, competitiveness and credibility are ultimately grounded in the Unions territorial, societal and governance foundations.

1 strategic foresight is an essential tool to strengthen the EU’s capacity to act in a context of geopolitical fragmentation, technological acceleration, climate transition and pressure on global value chains. We appreciate the Commission’s effort to link long-term analysis with public policy decisions and improve regulatory design and impact assessment.

Filed in Spanish · English published by the European Commission

The Red Cross EU Members engage with the EU as strategic partners grounded in shared commitments to human dignity, IHL, resilience and multilateral cooperation. Here below some perspectives on how the EU can consolidate a credible and influential global role.

As the EU agency for gender equality, we welcome the Commission's initiative to develop a 2026 Strategic Foresight Report and provide evidence to feed into that process based on EIGE's research. Embedding gender equality in foresight strengthens the EU's capacity to anticipate future risks and opportunities and to design more resilient, inclusive, and effective policies.

The EUs strategic foresight should begin from the recognition that the global environment has entered a phase of persistent systemic competition in which economic, technological, informational, and security domains are increasingly weaponised. The erosion of the post-WWII multilateral order is not temporary, and a return to previous assumptions of stability should not be the baseline for long-term planning. 1.

Strategic foresight is an essential tool for strengthening the European Union's capacity to act in an increasingly complex and uncertain global environment. This initiative is particularly valuable in linking long-term geopolitical analysis with present-day policy choices.

As the oldest and largest national employers' representative organization in Bulgaria with a membership base of more than 130 sector associations and more than 20000 individual business members, the Bulgarian Industrial Association has a strong analytical capacity, using actively strategic foresight in its analytical work on various topics and sectors.

We would like to provide feedback to the Strategic Foresight report based on the research findings of the on-going project HER-UKR: Challenges and opportunities for EU heritage diplomacy in Ukraine, which addresses the role of cultural heritage in the EUs external action. It is co-funded by the EU within the ERASMUS+ Jean Monnet Policy Debate action.

1) Areas of leverage for shaping the EUs long-term global role The EUs leverage will depend on its ability to align security, economic, regulatory, and development tools into a coherent geopolitical framework. The following areas merit particular attention: The EUs collective provision of Official Development Assistance (ODA) and its flagship initiative, the Global Gateway, provide powerful platforms to shape…

This input draws on scenario-based foresight analysis produced by the African Futures & Innovation (AFI) programme at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), notably the Africa in the World thematic futures report.

EU 2026 Strategic Blueprint: A Concise Overview The report outlines a dual-track strategy for the EU to strengthen its global standing by 2026: focus on specific technological frontiers while refining its international narrative. 1.

Our recent study Global Megatrends and Major Uncertainties for Green Growth provides a data-driven assessment of social, technological, economic, environmental, political and value-based trends shaping Europes future position in a fragmented global economy.

How can the EU shape its long-term role in an uncertain and rapidly changing world? The commission believes that this uncertain world is that of the post-Second World War and sees the fight against climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution as unifying goals. This approach is bad because it is false. The world has been uncertain for much longer and only civilizations constitute a barrier.