Shaping the Course for AI Governance: The Global AI Impact Network Convennes in Brussels
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, Mayor of Braga; Robin Berjon, technologist and internet governance specialist; alongside Jan Kuenne, Clay Busia, and Fadi Alfaris.
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.
A living community of knowledge
The Expert Group emphasized that GAIN must function as a dynamic, living ecosystem. It is uniquely positioned to advise policymakers, intervene constructively in public discourse, and foster a more strategic global conversation. By design, the network bridges top-down insights into EU and global political processes with bottom-up, empirical knowledge derived from enterprise, municipalities, and concrete sector-specific use cases.
GAIN’s distinct value proposition lies in its holistic synthesis of technological capacity, economic and social transformation, governance, finance, and narratives. This integrated approach is vital; AI is not merely a technological milestone, but a profound societal, economic, and political evolution. Through GAIN, Re-Imagine Europa and GeSI are committed to cultivating an enduring coalition of experts, policymakers, and industry leaders equipped to champion AI-driven paradigms that advance human dignity, robust democracy, and sustainable prosperity across Europe and the global community.