Franco-British Business Conference 2026 - President's Conclusions 

On 10 June 2026, the French Chamber of Commerce Great Britain brought together over 250 senior business leaders, policymakers and investors at the Chicago Booth London Conference Centre for our annual Franco-British Business Conference.

This year's theme — From Ambition to Action: Franco-British Competitiveness in an Era of Sovereignty — sparked honest, forward-looking conversations across energy, defence, artificial intelligence and industrial strategy.

A huge thank you to our speakers, sponsors and every attendee who made the day possible.

Franco-British Business Conference 2026 

The starting point for today's conversations was clear. We are operating in a fundamentally different environment from the one many of our businesses became accustomed to over the last two decades. 

The economic outlook session reminded us that the era of predictable growth, stable supply chains and benign inflation has ended. Businesses now face a world of geopolitical instability, energy volatility, growing security concerns and more frequent economic shocks. The question is no longer how to return to the conditions of the past. The question is how we build resilience, competitiveness and growth in a more uncertain world. 

Against that backdrop, five conclusions emerged from today's discussions. 

1. The challenge is no longer strategy. It is delivery. 

Across every panel, there was remarkable alignment on priorities. 

The UK and France broadly understand what needs to be done. We need more secure energy systems. We need stronger defence capabilities. We need to accelerate AI adoption and digital transformation. We need to strengthen industrial capacity and support innovation. 

The recurring challenge is implementation. Whether discussing electricity networks, defence procurement, AI deployment or industrial policy, participants repeatedly identified the same obstacle - the gap between ambition and execution. Institutions, procurement systems, regulatory frameworks and delivery models have not adapted at the same pace as geopolitical and technological change. 

The next phase of Franco-British cooperation will be judged not by the quality of our strategies, but by our ability to deliver them at scale and at speed. 

2. Infrastructure has become a strategic issue. 

One of the strongest themes of the day was the growing importance of infrastructure. 

In energy, speakers highlighted grid capacity and network investment as critical constraints on competitiveness. Several speakers also argued that electrification is increasingly becoming the practical route to competitiveness, energy security and decarbonisation, shifting the debate from energy generation alone to the wider challenge of system integration and infrastructure delivery. 

In AI, participants stressed that data centres, compute capacity and energy availability are now essential economic infrastructure. 

In defence, industrial capacity, production facilities and supply chains were identified as central to operational readiness. 

Business leaders also warned that regulation and permitting must remain proportionate to the strategic need, otherwise critical infrastructure risks being delayed by processes that do not adequately weigh energy security, competitiveness and urgency. 

What emerged is a broader lesson: infrastructure is no longer simply a technical or engineering question. It has become a strategic determinant of economic performance, technological leadership and national resilience. 

3. Economic security and economic competitiveness are now inseparable. 

A recurring theme throughout the day was the convergence of security and growth. 

Defence can no longer be viewed solely as a public expenditure item. Energy security can no longer be separated from industrial policy. Digital sovereignty can no longer be treated as a purely technological issue. 

The discussions demonstrated that competitiveness increasingly depends upon resilience: resilient supply chains, resilient energy systems, resilient digital capabilities and resilient industrial capacity. 

The UK and France are therefore not simply pursuing growth agendas. We are building the foundations of economic security in a more contested world. 

4. Europe's challenge is not innovation. It is scaling innovation. 

The defence and AI discussions reached a strikingly similar conclusion. 

Europe continues to generate world-class ideas, research and entrepreneurs. 

What remains difficult is translating innovation into industrial scale. 

Participants pointed to lengthy procurement cycles, fragmented markets, regulatory complexity, financing challenges and difficulties moving from pilot projects to deployment. 

The challenge is not whether Europe can innovate. The challenge is whether Europe can commercialise, manufacture and deploy innovation quickly enough to remain globally competitive. 

This is an area where Franco-British cooperation can make a meaningful contribution. 

5. The Franco-British relationship matters more than ever. 

Throughout the day, speakers repeatedly returned to a simple reality. 

The UK and France remain Europe's two largest defence powers, major energy partners, leading centres of research and innovation, and globally connected economies. 

Neither country can address today's challenges alone. Our partnership is bilateral in form, but European and international in significance. 

The answer to greater uncertainty is not isolation. It is deeper cooperation between trusted partners. 

That cooperation must be practical. It must create opportunities for businesses of all sizes, including SMEs. It must strengthen investment, innovation, skills and industrial capacity. And it must translate shared priorities into measurable outcomes. 

Looking Ahead 

Today's discussions reinforced a message that the Chamber has consistently championed. 

Sovereignty does not mean acting alone. It means having the capacity to act effectively with trusted partners. 

The Franco-British relationship is strongest when it combines strategic vision with practical delivery. Our role as a Chamber is to continue bringing together business leaders, policymakers and innovators to help bridge that gap between policy ambition and business reality. 

The discussions do not end today. The Chamber will continue to use the insights generated through the Conference to inform its advocacy, policy engagement and business programmes in the months ahead. The challenge identified throughout the day was clear, in an era of greater uncertainty, competitiveness will increasingly depend on the ability to deliver. That is the task now facing business leaders, policymakers and institutions on both sides of the Channel. 

From ambition to action:
Franco-British competitiveness in an era of sovereignty