DIGITALEUROPE’s Summer Summit returns on 4 June to Brussels and online. Join us for top level discussions on a broad range of hot-button tech issues.
The 2025 summit will focus on:
– How to keep Europe’s edge in clean tech
– Seizing the opportunities of AI
– Simplify, simplify, simplify – the 2025 digital policy agenda
– Adapting to uncertainty and maintaining alliances in turbulent times
Please note that due to venue capacity, in person places are by application only. Virtual is open to all and you will receive access information for the platform upon registering.
Legal studies; 2006, MBA. Held commercial positions at Shell, Berlin, Hamburg and Rotterdam. 2006, began working for consultancy firm McKinsey & Company. From 2011, Member of the Senate of the States General; Deputy Leader of the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) in the Senate and Member of the Senate committees for Finance, Security and Justice, Social Affairs and Employment, and Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Cooperation. Since October 2017, Minister of Finance. Former: Chair of The Supervisory Board, National Maritime Museum; Member of the Board, Friends of the Hubrecht Institute; Ambassador, Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology.
Keynote Speaker:
Wopke Hoesktra
Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth
European Commission
Mr Tudorache became a member of cabinet for Commissioner Sejourné in 2024.
Prior to this, he was a Member of the European Parliament (Renew Europe) and the Executive President of the PLUS party in Romania. He was the Chair of the European Parliament’s AIDA (Artificial Intelligence in the Digital Age) special committee.
Apart from AI and new technologies, his interests include the Republic of Moldova, internal affairs, security, and transatlantic issues.
He started his career as a judge and then moved on to work for the OSCE and UN missions in Kosovo. Subsequently, he joined the Commission Representation in Romania, supporting the country’s EU ascension, before entering the European Commission. There, he worked on migration dossiers and led the coordination and strategy Unit during the 2015 crisis. He then joined the Government led by Dacian Ciolos in Romania, where he was Head of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery, Minister of Communications and for the Digital Society, and Minister of Interior.
Dragos Tudorache
Member of Cabinet, Commissioner Sejourné, European Commission
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl is Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, the leading digital technology industry association representing over 45,000 digital companies in Europe.
She is a member of the European Commission’s Industrial Forum and High-Level Forum on European Standardisation. She is also a member of the Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group of ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity). She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Gaia-X.
Formerly, Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl served as a member of the Advisory Group to the Secretary General of NATO on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies. She was also a member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, as well as a member of the B20 Digital Transformation Taskforce, a board member of the European Commission’s Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and the European Parliament-led European Internet Forum.
In March 2023, Cecilia received the Ukraine Peace Prize on behalf of DIGITALEUROPE for its work supporting Ukraine during the war.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl has more than 25 years of experience in the ICT industry. She previously held international positions at IBM and Oracle as well as with SMEs, building businesses across Europe and China and founding the global SAP implementation company and cloud provider GlobeIT. She served as Board Member of the Danish Chamber of Commerce and was President of the Board of the Danish ICT association (ITB).
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl
Director General, DIGITALEUROPE
Aura Salla is a Finnish MEP from the Kansallinen Kokoomus Party, which is part of the group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats). She was elected to the European Parliament in June 2024 where she is a member of the ECON committee and of the Delegation for relations with India. She is also a substitute for the IMCO committee, the Delegation for relations with Canada and the Delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Previously, she was a member of the Finnish Parliament, where she actively engaged in international and EU affairs. Before entering the Finnish Parliament, Aura held the role of managing public policy director and head of EU Affairs at Meta’s Brussels office. She also has extensive experience in the European Commission, where she worked as a Foreign Policy and Communications adviser in the European Political Strategy Centre and as a member of cabinet for vice-president Jyrki Katainen. Aura holds a doctorate’s in Political Science from the University of Turku, focusing on the politicization of the European Commission during the euro crisis, and a master’s degree in EU Economic and Foreign Policy from Leipzig University.
Aura Salla
Member,
European Parliament
Further speakers to be announced shortly…
Bio to be updated soon
João Rui Ferreira
Secretary of State for Economy,
Portugal
Since 1995 Denis has been a career European Commission official, having held positions in the monetary, international economic affairs and internal market directorate generals of the EU Executive. He served as advisor to EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and a Deputy chief of staff to EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. Afterwards he headed the WTO division and then the Strategy division in the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission.
Between 2015 and 2020 he acted as Director for “WTO, Legal Affairs and Trade in Goods” in the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission. In July 2020 he was appointed Deputy Director General and Chief Trade Enforcement Officer in the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission.
Denis Redonnet
Deputy Director General,
DG TRADE,
European Commission
Ann Mettler has more than two decades of experience in high-level public policy and strategy, operating at the intersection of technology, innovation, foresight and entrepreneurship.
At Breakthrough Energy, Ann is working with European partners to accelerate clean tech innovation in the pursuit of climate neutrality and a net-zero emissions future. Previously, she served as Director-General at the European Commission where she ran the internal strategy department, reporting directly to the President. An entrepreneur at heart, Ann set up her own think tank which she ran for more than a decade. Her career started at the World Economic Forum where she led the Europe department. If she is not busy pondering the state of the world, she loves spending time with family and friends, tending to her garden and walking her dog.
Ann has lived and worked in Germany, Greece, the United States, Switzerland and Belgium. She holds MA degrees in political science and European law and economics, and graduated with distinction from the University of New Mexico, USA, and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Bonn, Germany.
Ann Mettler
Vice-President, Europe, Breakthrough Energy
Luuk van Middelaar (1973) is a political theorist and historian. He is a professor of EU law at Leiden University and a political commentator for NRC Handelsblad. The author of the prizewinning book The Passage to Europe, he published more recently Alarums & Excursions: Improvising Politics on the European Stage (2019) and Pandemonium (2021) – all available in multiple languages, as well as Le Réveil géopolitique de l’Europe (2022) in French. Van Middelaar published his first book, Politicide, in 1999. He was the chief speechwriter and a close advisor to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy (2010-2014). Since 2018, he is a member of the Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV). In 2022, he founded the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics.
Luuk van Middelaar
Founder,
Brussels Institute of Geopolitics
Kathrin Watson joined Bosch in Brussels as the Head of EU Affairs Office in 2018. Since September 2023 she is the Head of Political Affairs and Government Relations.
Prior to Bosch, Mrs Watson has been working as advisor at the German Energy and Water Industry Association (BDEW) in Brussels where she was responsible for the topics renewable energy, energy efficiency, competition law and environment policy at EU level. She obtained a master degree in International Politics from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a master degree in Communication, Economics and Political Science from the University of Aachen.
Kathrin Watson
Head of Political Affairs and Government Relation,
Bosch
Note: All session timings below are in Central European Summer Time (CEST)
12:30 – 13:30
Networking lunch
13:30 – 13:50
Opening Keynote conversation: The role of technology in Europe’s economic security
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President ‘Europe Fit for the Digital Age’, European Commission
13:50 – 14:15
Presentation of DIGITALEUROPE’s new report
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director General DIGITALEUROPE
14:15 – 15:15
High-level panel: Europe’s Tech Landscape: Strengths, Weaknesses, and the Road Ahead
Moderated by: Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director General DIGITALEUROPE
Denis Redonnet, Deputy Director General, DG TRADE, European Commission
Ann Mettler, Vice-President, Europe, Breakthrough Energy
Luuk van Middelaar, Founder, Brussels Institute of Geopolitics
Kathrin Watson, Head of Political Affairs and Government Relation, Bosch
15:15 – 15:40
Fireside Chat: Enhancing Europe’s Economic Security
João Rui Ferreira, Secretary of State for Economy, Portugal
Margrethe Vestager
Executive Vice-President ‘Europe Fit for the Digital Age’
European Commission
Ann Mettler
Vice-President, Europe
Breakthrough Energy
João Rui Ferreira
Secretary of State for Economy
Portugal
The in person element of the event will take place at the Sofitel Brussels Europe. In person places are strictly limited and by application only, so please only arrange travel to the event once you have confirmation from the event team following your application.
The event will be live streamed, and details of how to join the online platform will be sent in the week prior to the event to those registered for virtual participation.
If you are interested in knowing how you can get involved in the #DESummerSummit, or for any information, please contact
Kivanç Akil, Associate Director for Events & Executive Coordination
+32 473 36 17 54 / events@digitaleurope.org