Europe tackles the future of its digital competitiveness in Brussels

Competitiveness, innovation and the development of critical technologies have become central issues for Europe’s economic future. Against this backdrop, representatives of European institutions, public authorities and businesses will gather in Brussels from 26th to 29th October for Spain Digital Week 2026, an event organised by the Spanish Association of the Digital Economy (Adigital), which brings together more than 450 companies and works, among other areas, to represent Spain’s digital ecosystem before the European institutions. Zabala Innovation will be represented at the event by, among others, Susana Garayoa, Head of Institutional Relations in Brussels, who will take part in one of the discussions on the future of European innovation.

Under the theme Shaping Europe’s digital future – From a Spanish perspective, with a European ambition, the second edition of Spain Digital Week will address some of the main challenges facing the EU as it seeks to boost its competitiveness through digitalisation. Competitiveness, the single market, critical technologies, innovation and technology diplomacy will feature prominently on an agenda combining public debates, institutional meetings and opportunities for public-private collaboration.

Zabala Innovation takes part in the European innovation debate

One of the main events will take place on Tuesday 27th October with the Spanish Council for European Digitalization, conceived as the initiative’s central event. The day will bring together senior representatives from the European institutions and the business community to discuss the transformation of the European economy through digitalisation.

Against this backdrop, Zabala Innovation will take part in the session A more innovative Europe, from 2 pm to 3 pm. Garayoa will be joined by Alberto Gago, Director General of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA); Erik Canton, Deputy Chief Economist at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD); and Dimitri Lorenzani, Head of Strategy and Funding Coordination for Research and Deployment Investments at the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT).

Zabala Innovation’s participation in this panel places the consultancy at the heart of a debate closely linked to one of its main areas of expertise: fostering innovation and its financing in Europe. The session also forms part of a day that will explore how to build a more competitive, innovative, integrated and resilient Europe in the face of technological challenges, with issues such as business scaling, the single market, economic security and critical technologies at the centre of the discussions.

The impact of technology on competitiveness now extends well beyond the digital sector itself. “Digitalisation has become a cross-cutting force that is transforming industrial and business processes, improving their efficiency and generating new business models,” explains Blanca Rodríguez, Team leader with expertise in European Programmes at Zabala Innovation. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and new generations of semiconductors, she adds, “will have a catalytic effect that will extend far beyond the digital sector itself”.

The programme will feature a strong institutional presence. Tuesday’s opening session will bring together Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy; Óscar López, Spain’s Minister for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service; and César Tello, CEO of Adigital. Representatives from several European Commission departments, the Council of the European Union and the European Data Protection Supervisor will also take part throughout the day, alongside technology companies.

Beyond the development of these technologies, Rodríguez identifies another key challenge for the EU: ensuring that scientific and technological knowledge translates into economic activity. “One of Europe’s main challenges remains turning that knowledge into innovation that reaches the market, creates new companies, enables existing ones to scale up and strengthens its industrial capacity,” she says. To move in this direction, she highlights the need to connect research, innovation, financing and industrialisation, while stressing that Spain has the capabilities to contribute both to the development of critical technologies and to their transformation into industry and competitiveness.

Technology cooperation connects Europe and Latin America

The international dimension will take centre stage on Wednesday 28th October. The Internationalisation and technology diplomacy event, organised in collaboration with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Spanish Government, will focus on relations between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean. It will explore ways to foster investment and the creation of interregional markets, while strengthening cooperation in areas such as data, artificial intelligence and scientific and technological infrastructures.

Nadia Calviño, President of the European Investment Bank Group, will take part in the opening of this second major day alongside Teresa Riesgo, Secretary General for Innovation at Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and Tello. Representatives from the European Commission, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the CSIC and the diplomatic community will also participate, with sessions focusing on cross-border investment, public-private collaboration in technology diplomacy and scientific cooperation between Spain and Latin America.

The programme will be rounded off by a private dinner with institutional representatives on Monday 26th October and, on Thursday 29th October, meetings between companies and institutional representatives in small groups. Over four days, Brussels will thus become a meeting point for discussions on Spain’s role in a European digital agenda shaped by the challenge of turning innovation and technology into drivers of competitiveness.