Welcome to the 2024 Tatra Summit, and welcome to the beautiful High Tatras.

It is great to see so many familiar faces and influential leaders from both the public and private sectors. This Summit is about having important conversations and fostering intimate and off-the-record high-level conversations that avoid the general clichés. We are here to dig deep and get to the roots.

The theme of this year’s Tatra Summit is “Climbing Higher: Europe’s New Strategy for Competitiveness and Growth.” On Saturday, we will literally take you all for a walk up the mountains so you can feel the physical challenge – but also so that you all feel how great the rewards that come from pushing ourselves to new heights – just like we need to do with Europe’s future.

We are meeting at a critical time. Europe’s well-oiled machine is not working properly, and we are losing our competitiveness. As Europe falls behind China and the United States, we all feel that the economic miracle on which Europe was built is no longer there. We are grappling with a range of unprecedented challenges: the ongoing war in Ukraine, the aftermath of high inflation, and growing pressure on public finances. Energy prices remain high, global trade and supply chains are disrupted, growth is stagnant, productivity is lagging, and Europe’s population is aging. The investment gap, especially in key industries, is enormous. Our industries face hurdles like rising energy costs, protectionism, and subsidies elsewhere.

At the same time, we are on the brink of a new political cycle, with new leaders preparing for hearings. Two key reports, by Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, have outlined the scale of the challenges and put forward bold solutions. GLOBSEC has also contributed to this debate. In our latest report, Pivotal Moment for Europe: Central European Proposals for the Next EU Leadership, we provide key recommendations for the incoming European Commission, drawing on perspectives from Central and Eastern European countries. Our proposals advocate for a more competitive and defence-minded Europe, emphasizing the need for greater agility in decision-making, stronger public-private partnerships, and enhanced regional collaboration. We particularly focus on closing the investment gap in infrastructure, energy, and digital ecosystems to ensure long-term stability and growth.

As such, at this year’s Tatra Summit, GLOBSEC is launching two new major reports. The first, focused on energy grids, explores the challenges and opportunities of modernizing Europe’s infrastructure to meet our ambitious climate goals. The second one, on the competitiveness of the CEE region, offers fresh insights on how Central Europe can continue driving growth for the entire continent.

Europe must embrace today to restore its competitive advantage. Innovation, new technologies, the ability to control critical materials, and an educational system that trains our populations to be world-leading engineers and adopters of technologies are exactly what we need today to become globally competitive again.

Finally, I would like to thank our co-chairs, Thierry Déau, Mathias Cormann, Gordon Bajnai, and Maithreyi Seetharaman, as well as our Board of Directors led by Wilhelm Molterer, and all of our private partners who have made this Summit possible. A special thanks goes to the GLOBSEC team for their hard work over a challenging year. Remember, we are not just here to talk but to act. Engage in these discussions and embrace the informal exchanges. And do not forget to join Adam’s morning run tomorrow morning!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a mountain to climb—let’s get to it.