Brussels Economic Security Forum 2026

Please read about #BESF2026 here (link to x and web post) and see the pictures from the BESF 2026 Summit here.

Follow the BESF LinkedIn page for updates on ongoing Brussels Economic Security Forum activities.

14:00 - 14:30 Opening Keynote and Conversation - Mobilizing Economic Strength for Europe’s Security

14:30 - 15:30 Opening Session – A World in Crisis: Can We Avoid Global Economic Dislocation?

Successive shocks to trade, supply chains, and energy have laid bare the fragility of economic interdependence, triggering a global race to secure critical inputs, reshore industries, and reduce exposure to external shocks. Yet the pursuit of economic security risks becoming self-defeating: as major economies turn inward, competition over resources, technology, and industrial capacity is hardening into a more fragmented and coercive global order. For import-dependent economies, the stakes are especially high in a world where access to critical inputs is increasingly politicised and where vulnerability is no longer shared equally. In this opening session, leading policymakers and experts will confront a central question: can states secure themselves without accelerating the very fragmentation they seek to guard against, and if not, what does cooperation look like in an era of economic rivalry?

16:00 - 16:45 Global Imbalances in Focus– China’s Export Surge, America’s Retrenchment, Europe’s Squeeze?