Actions
On 1 October 2025, eu-LISA is hosting the High-Level Conference 2025, titled “Strategic Autonomy in Action: Keeping Europe and Its Borders Secure with Trusted Technology.”
The event brings together senior representatives from EU institutions, national authorities, industry and academia to explore how sovereign technologies, legal frameworks, and skillsets can reinforce the EU’s security and resilience.
In a time of intensifying geopolitical change and growing global interdependence, Europe faces the dual imperative of protecting its citizens while strengthening its strategic autonomy – particularly in the technological domain. The hybrid conference, taking place at Tallinn’s historic Estonian Statehood House and online, reflects this challenge by focusing on three key dimensions:
- The first panel on Technological Sovereignty – Critical Systems looks at how emerging and established technologies, such as artificial intelligence, biometric recognition, open-source software and standardisation, can contribute to reducing dependencies, mitigating risks, and ensuring transparency and trustworthiness in Europe’s digital infrastructure.
- The second panel, Rule of Law and Autonomy, explores how procurement and governance frameworks can foster European technology ecosystems while ensuring alignment with the EU’s fundamental values. Discussions will highlight how choices made in managing critical IT systems directly affect Europe’s capacity to remain both autonomous and accountable, anchoring technological progress in the principles of the rule of law.
- Finally, the third panel, Tech Skills for Strategic Autonomy, addresses one of the most pressing questions for Europe’s future resilience: how to build, retain and deploy the digital skills required to manage secure and sophisticated systems. This includes exploring new initiatives for developing technological expertise, aligning talent with long-term EU priorities, and ensuring that skills and knowledge remain within the European market.
The conference opens with welcoming remarks by Magnus Brunner, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Igor Taro, Minister of the Interior of Estonia, Rene Vihalem, Chair of the eu-LISA Management Board, and Marili Männik, Executive Director ad interim of eu-LISA. Their interventions set the stage for a full day of high-level debates, complemented by contributions from policymakers, senior officials, academics and industry leaders across Europe.
“We are not only the guardians of Europe’s digital infrastructure, we are also architects of its future digital sovereignty. By choosing trustworthy technologies, developing our own talent, and working together with our partners and stakeholders, we aim to ensure that Europe will not be reliant on others for its safety, justice, or freedom. Strategic autonomy is our path to higher resilience. Today’s discussions will provide valuable insights for our Agency, EU partners, technology providers and stakeholders working to strengthen Europe’s digital resilience,” said Marili Männik, Executive Director ad interim of eu-LISA.
The conference reaffirms eu-LISA’s role in ensuring that Europe’s large-scale IT systems for freedom, security and justice remain secure, sovereign and future-oriented. It also underlines the Agency’s commitment to supporting the EU’s broader digital transformation agenda, where security and sovereignty objectives go hand in hand with transparency, accountability and respect for fundamental rights.
The full programme and list of speakers are available on the eu-LISA website:
The Conference is streamed live on the eu-LISA website and accessible to all without registration.
About eu-LISA
eu-LISA is the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. The Agency supports EU Member States and institutions in the development and management of interoperable information systems that facilitate the implementation of the Union’s policies in the areas of border management, asylum and migration, law enforcement cooperation, and cross-border justice.
Operating and evolving in an ever-changing internal security landscape, the Agency facilitates the implementation of one of EU citizens' fundamental rights – the right to free movement – for more than 400 million people.
eu-LISA manages and develops several large-scale IT systems, including Eurodac, SIS, VIS, EES, ETIAS, ECRIS-TCN, e-CODEX, JITs CP, with others on the way.
The Agency’s headquarters are in Tallinn, Estonia, while the operations site is located in Strasbourg, France. eu-LISA also has a back-up site in Austria and a liaison office in Brussels, Belgium.
