The Road to Prosperity
What Europe must build, fund and decide for the long term
Industry, energy, defence and public services all demand long-term investment and reform, just as budgets tighten, growth slows and politics fragments. In a more adversarial and competitive world, the choices Europe makes now will shape its prosperity for decades.
On 2 December 2026 in Paris, EMPN and Institut Avant-Garde bring together economists and policymakers to debate three questions:
Industry: which sectors are worth backing, and how?
Priorities: what should a budget put first, and what is it prepared to give up?
Prosperity: which economic model for a Europe facing rival powers and scarce resources? Can innovation reconcile growth with ecological limits?
Programme
9:30 · Doors open
9:45 · Opening (EN)
→ Ludovic Suttor-Sorel, Managing Director, EMPN
→ Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, President, EMPN; Managing Director, Dezernat Zukunft
10:00 · Keynote (EN)
→ Jean Pisani-Ferry, Professor of Economics, Sciences Po; Senior Fellow, Bruegel
10:30 · Europe’s industrial comeback: which sectors, who pays, who decides? (EN)
Should Europe defend its existing industries, bet on new ones, or pick only the markets it can still win, and who decides?
→ Vincent Vicard, Deputy Director, CEPII
→ Max Paleschke, Director and Co-founder, Dezernat Zukunft
More speakers to be announced
12:00 · Lunch
13:00 · Fireside chat (FR)
How can a country carry out ambitious reforms when politics and the economy are this unsettled?
→ Pierre Rosanvallon, Historian and Emeritus Professor, Collège de France, in conversation with Clara Leonard, Director General, Institut Avant-Garde
13:30 · Hard choices: what is a budget for? (FR)
Energy, defence, innovation and public services all press against the same budget. What comes first, what can wait, and what do we give up?
→ Selma Mahfouz, Inspector General of Finance
→ Pierre Boyer, Professor of Economics, École polytechnique (CREST); Deputy Director, Institut des politiques publiques
→ François Ecalle, Founder and President, Fipeco
→ Simon-Pierre Sengayrac, Co-Director, Observatoire de l’économie, Fondation Jean-Jaurès
Moderator: Jean-Marc Vittori, Les Echos
15:00 · Coffee break
15:30 · Which economic model for Europe? Growth, technology and the limits of expansion (FR)
Can clean energy and innovation raise living standards, cut emissions and reduce Europe’s dependencies all at once, or will some sectors have to produce less?
→ Pierre Charbonnier, Philosopher, CNRS researcher, Sciences Po
→ Étienne Espagne, Climate and Finance Economist, AFD
→ Maxime Menuet, Professor of Economics, Université Côte d’Azur
→ Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Managing Director, Dezernat Zukunft
→ Adrien Bilal, Assistant Professor of Economics, Stanford University (recorded talk)
Moderator: Eric Albert, Le Monde
17:00 · Close and networking
Practical information
The morning is in English and the afternoon in French, with live interpretation between the two all day. Coffee and lunch will be served.
About the organizers:
Headquartered in Brussels, the European Macro Policy Network (EMPN) is a network of national economic think tanks and research institutes. It funds and incubates think tanks, and connects economists with finance-ministry and academic experience to develop economic proposals that work in national capitals and at EU level. Founded in 2021 by Dezernat Zukunft, it has been an independent Belgian non-profit since 2025.
Institut Avant-Garde is a non-partisan French think tank that develops analyses and concrete proposals for decision-makers and academics. Under its motto, Transformer l’esprit économique, it brings a systemic view and strong academic expertise to economic policy, drawing on a network of European think tanks. It hosts this conference in Paris.