The 2026 Florence Security Forum

• Development and External Relations Service
• The EU Security Initiative (EUSI)

The European security architecture is under stress. Within defence and security circles covering policy practice, think tanks, and academia, the discussion now focusses on how to ensure a resilient European security architecture.

Despite the need being clear, the reality is that the emerging European security architecture may not be fully fit for purpose for the foreseeable future.

The 2026 Florence Security Forum will focus on the state of the European security architecture, and the prospects for responding constructively to mounting security challenges. The Forum aims to generate concrete proposals to ensure a resilient architecture that is fit for purpose in an increasingly demanding geopolitical context. The Forum will examine the proliferation of European bodies and frameworks for security and defence by asking: which frameworks are working and why; which are underperforming; and which are currently missing or superfluous. We ask if the rather complex structure can be fixed to facilitate a European security architecture that allows its components to work together productively.

To address these questions, the Forum will zoom in on three recent fundamental shocks that have transformed the European security architecture: return of war to the European continent, the second Trump administration, and the exposure of European vulnerability in global trade.

Participation is upon invitation only.