Munich, December 23, 2025 – A new forum has been established by a group of prominent entrepreneurs, top managers, and leaders from United Europe e.V. and European Forum Alpbach (EFA) to promote an empowered and self-determined Europe. The Sovereign Europe Forum i.G. is built upon the Munich Declaration 2025 (www.munichdeclaration.org), a document that was presented and published at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in 2025. The next event will take place on the eve of the Munich Security Conference in February 2026 at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, serving as an official side event of the MSC.
The forum’s primary mission is to support Europe in its pursuit of sovereignty and to strengthen its capacity to defend its values and security as the fourth world power. This goal can only be achieved through greater integration and cooperation in defense, economics, and political technology.
“Sovereignty is essential for the maintenance of peace, freedom, and the values of the European Union and its democratic culture,” says Martin A. Schoeller, family entrepreneur and co-initiator of the forum. “The European principle of peace in freedom is based on respecting all existing state borders and avoiding the abuse of power. This has been the key to our success over the past 80 years.”
Through open and productive dialogue between politicians, business leaders, and experts, the forum aims to provide concrete proposals for measures to support the strategic and operational implementation of sovereignty.
The founding members of the Sovereign Europe Forum include family entrepreneur Martin A. Schoeller and his wife Eva, entrepreneur and founder of United Europe Jürgen Großmann, European politician Othmar Karas (President of the European Forum Alpbach), entrepreneur and consultant and Vice President of the European Forum Alpbach Antonella Mei-Pochtler, former Managing Director of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Klaus Regling, and Andreas Treichl, Chairman of the ERSTE Foundation in Austria and founder of Europe Future Initiative. The Board of Trustees includes prominent figures such as Nikolaus von Bomhard, former Chairman of the Board of Management of Munich Re, Dr. Patrick Adenauer, former President of the Association of Family Entrepreneurs in Germany, André Loesekrug-Pietri, founder of JEDI (Joint European Disruptive Initiative), Günther H. Oettinger, President of United Europe, and Beat Wittmann, founder of Porta Advisors.
The forum was born out of the Europe Panel, which recommended a call for a European Defence Union and an agenda for competitiveness with the participation of prominent politicians such as José Manuel Barroso, former President of the EU Commission, and Andrius Kubilius, EU Defence Commissioner, along with well-known business representatives.
The Munich Declaration 2025 was signed on February 13, 2025, at the “Europe Panel” in the Bayerischer Hof by José Manuel Barroso, Klaus Regling, André Loesekrug-Pietri, Othmar Karas, Antonella Mei-Pochtler, Andreas Treichl, and Martin A. Schoeller.
For more information, please visit https://www.munichdeclaration.org/.
Press Contact Sovereign Europe Forum:
Prof. Dr. Josef Arweck
Phone: +4915734762499
Email: arweck@bernstein-group.com