Moving swiftly from its official launch to implementation, Re-Imagine Europa and GeSI convened the inaugural working session of the core expert Group of the Global AI Impact Network (GAIN) in Brussels. The high-level session was co-led by Maria João Rodrigues, Chair of Re-Imagine Europa’s Advisory Board; Erika Staël von Holstein, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Re-Imagine Europa; and Luis Neves, Global CEO of GeSI. The meeting brought together leading experts such as Pedro Conceição, Director of the Human Development Report Office at UNDP; Blaž Golob, Chairman of the Ljubljana Forum and Director of the GFS Institute; Luca De Biase, Research and Media Director of Re-Imagine Europa; Ricardo Rio, Head of EMEA and Strategic Parnerships at GeSI; Robin Berjon, technologist and internet governance specialist; Jan Kuenne, Vicepresident of EU & India Pacific Enterprise Development Group; Clay Busia, Cabinet of the European Commission Executive Vice President; and Fadi Alfaris, CEO of SEE Environment Holding.
The discussions spanned a comprehensive thematic agenda, assessing Europe’s digital strategy and stack, AI narratives, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), open networks, governance, and finance, alongside sector-specific impacts on cities, agriculture, manufacturing, and supply chains. Crucially, these European perspectives were enriched by prominent insights from global frameworks outside the EU.
A definitive thesis emerged from the proceedings: the digital and AI transition is fundamentally not a narrow technical challenge. Rather, it dictates how modern societies organize markets, public services, democratic institutions, labor, education, sustainability, and multilateral cooperation. The narratives Europe constructs around its digital future directly dictate the horizon of the possible, determining whether citizens and institutions possess the agency to proactively shape this landscape or are merely left to react to it.