COcyber High-Level Working Lunch: Europe’s Quantum Shield - Securing Tomorrow, Today

On 28 November 2025, our partner The Lisbon Council — in the framework of COcyber — hosted a high-level working lunch at the Residence Palace in Brussels, gathering senior figures from quantum technologies, cybersecurity, policy and industry. The session offered a focused moment to reflect on how quickly quantum capabilities are advancing and what Europe must do now to prepare.

Professor Bart Preneel, head of the COSIC research group at KU Leuven and ICT Personality of the Year 2025, opened the discussion with an overview of emerging quantum threats and the pressure they place on today’s cryptographic systems. 

 He was joined by experts including Christian D’Cunha (European Commission, DG CONNECT), Karolina Kozłowska (ENISA), Juraj Kubica (European Commission, DG CONNECT), Fabienne Marco (Quantum Social Lab, TUM Think Tank) and Jan Sonck (The Quantum Circle / Proximus Group), each bringing perspectives from regulation, research, cybersecurity practice and industry.

Together, the participants explored how quantum technologies are moving from theory into real deployments across finance, logistics, space and defence — creating opportunities while exposing vulnerabilities. With adversaries potentially storing encrypted data today for future decryption, the need for a coordinated European transition to post-quantum security is becoming urgent rather than theoretical.

The discussion unfolded against a backdrop of rapid scientific momentum, reinforced by milestones such as the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for foundational work on quantum tunnelling. The conversation emphasised that Europe’s preparedness hinges on strategic alignment and timely action across sectors.