Felipe VI will meet with Mattarella and Seguro this Wednesday in Venice for the 19th COTEC Summit

Eduardo González King Felipe VI will attend the 18th COTEC Europe Summit this coming Wednesday, June 17, along with the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, and the President of Portugal, António José Seguro. The summit will be held in Venice under the theme “Rethinking Work in the Age of AI: Transformation, Opportunity, Governance.” The meeting, which will take place at the Giorgio Cini Foundation headquarters on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, will bring together representatives from industry, academia, and research to discuss Artificial Intelligence in the world of work, the skills of the future, and the economic and employment dynamics of European countries. Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, will be the guest speaker at the symposium. The Foundation for Technological Innovation (COTEC) was established in 1990 at the initiative of King Juan Carlos with the aim of promoting innovation as an economic and social driver. The summit, held annually since 2005 in a different country on a rotating basis, brings together the heads of state of Spain, Portugal, and Italy—the three countries where the Foundation operates (with the King serving as Honorary President)—along with authorities, business leaders, and prominent figures in the field of research, development, and innovation (R&D&I) in Europe. This is the first COTEC Europe Summit for the current President of Portugal, António José Seguro, who assumed office on March 9th, succeeding Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Since 2017, each meeting has focused on a specific theme. Spain has hosted the event six times: the first four in Madrid (2006, 2009, 2012, and 2017), the 2021 edition in Málaga, and the 2024 edition in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The last edition was held in Coimbra in May 2025 and focused on the challenges to competitiveness and economic growth in the European Union. This year, the Summit aims to “identify shared strategies for governing the new world of work in an ethical, effective, and sustainable manner, in line with the provisions of the European Union's Artificial Intelligence Law,” according to the organizers.

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