--- eventsindex_id: EI-07036 slug: sommet-grand-continent title: Sommet Grand Continent title_alt: - Grand Continent Summit - Summit Le Grand Continent canonical_url: https://eventsindex.org/events/sommet-grand-continent.html next_edition_dates: '' next_edition_year: 2026 date_start: null date_end: null venue: Grand Hotel Billia, Saint-Vincent (Aosta Valley) city: Aosta Valley country: Italy organiser: Groupe d'études géopolitiques (GEG) / Le Grand Continent organiser_url: https://summit.legrandcontinent.eu/ b2b: true vector: sector: - policy-forums audience: - heads-of-government - ministers - eu-institution-leaders - diplomats - academics format: - summit purpose: - networking geography_scope: - Western-Europe season: spring meta_description: 'Sommet Grand Continent, Aosta Valley, Italy: annual Alpine summit gathering ~180 European heads of government, ministers and intellectuals each December.' editorial_take: The Sommet Grand Continent is the only invitation-only high-altitude political summit that brings sitting European prime ministers, Nobel laureates, and frontline opposition figures into the same three-day Alpine setting, making it a genuinely off-cycle venue for European strategic conversation outside Brussels. generated_by: enrich-cowork (N1/N2/N3) last_verified: '2026-06-11' schema_version: v8.0 language: en --- # Sommet Grand Continent > *An invitation-only Alpine retreat held each December in the Aosta Valley, the Sommet Grand Continent gathers around 180 sitting prime ministers, EU officials, Nobel laureates, economists, and cultural figures to debate the future of Europe away from the institutional corridors of Brussels and Strasbourg.* --- ## Quick Facts | DATES | VENUE | ORGANISER | ATTENDANCE | |---|---|---|---| | December 2026 (exact dates TBC; 2025 edition: 2-5 December) | Grand Hotel Billia, Saint-Vincent, Aosta Valley, Italy | Groupe d'études géopolitiques (GEG) / Le Grand Continent | ~180 participants (according to the organiser) | ## Definition The Sommet Grand Continent is an annual invitation-only political summit organised by the Groupe d'études géopolitiques (GEG), the Paris-based think tank behind the journal Le Grand Continent. Held each December in the Italian Alps at altitude, it convenes approximately 180 senior participants from politics, international institutions, academia, business, and the arts to deliberate on the strategic challenges facing Europe. The summit operates under the High Patronage of the French and Italian presidents, giving it an unusual degree of diplomatic legitimacy for a think-tank-organised event. Programme details and the full participant list are accessible only to members of Le Grand Continent. The 2026 dates have not been confirmed as of June 2026. ## What is the Sommet Grand Continent? The summit was created by the Groupe d'études géopolitiques to provide a format for high-level European political dialogue that differs structurally from institutional summits and commercial conference circuits. By fixing the location in a geographically symbolic Alpine setting, shared between France and Italy at the heart of the continent, GEG frames the event as a statement about European civilisation as much as a policy forum. The altitude itself, with one session of the 2025 edition conducted at the Petit Cervin at 3,883 metres, carries deliberate symbolic weight. The editorial approach follows the journal's model: thematic depth over headline-chasing, long-form debate over panel discussions of five minutes per speaker. The 2025 edition was organised around the theme "Building Europe in the Shadow of Empires," orienting three days of sessions toward questions of sovereignty, strategic autonomy, and the continent's position between the United States and China. This thematic spine distinguishes the Sommet from generalist political forums and makes it closer in spirit to a seminar than a standard summit. ## Who attends the Sommet Grand Continent The Sommet draws from a tightly curated list of approximately 180 invitees across several overlapping spheres: - **Heads of government and senior ministers:** sitting and former prime ministers and government members from EU member states and accession candidates (the 2025 edition featured the Croatian Prime Minister and a Spanish minister, among others) - **EU and multilateral institutional figures:** senior officials from the Council of Europe and European institutions - **Diplomats and security figures:** ambassadors, senior intelligence officers, and defence ministers - **Economists and policy researchers:** figures from international institutions such as the IMF, central banks, and major universities (MIT, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, LSE) - **Frontline political actors from beyond EU borders:** opposition leaders and advisors from Ukraine, Belarus, and neighbouring states in the European orbit - **Cultural and intellectual figures:** novelists, philosophers, filmmakers, historians from institutions such as the Collège de France and the Treccani Institute The mix signals that GEG treats European politics as a cultural and intellectual project, not only a technocratic one. The presence of figures such as Nobel Peace Prize winners alongside defence ministers in the same room sets this summit apart from both academic conferences and government-adjacent policy forums. ## What the Sommet Grand Continent covers programmatically Each edition is organised around a single thematic axis announced in the weeks before the summit. In 2025, "Building Europe in the Shadow of Empires" oriented sessions toward the continent's strategic position relative to American and Chinese power, European defence architecture, democratic resilience, and the geopolitical dimensions of the ecological and digital transitions. Recurring subject areas across editions include European sovereignty, constitutional questions, the future of the Franco-German relationship, NATO and the eastern neighbourhood, democratic backsliding, and the role of culture and language in European identity. The programme structure combines plenary sessions, small-group working sessions, and the summit-day session at altitude, which has become a distinctive format element. Language policy reflects the journal's European multilingual identity: sessions run in both French and English. The programme itself is not published publicly; it circulates to members of Le Grand Continent only. ## Notable speakers and participants The 2025 edition (December 2-5, Aosta Valley) brought together a cross-sectoral group that included Andrej Plenković (Prime Minister of Croatia), Alain Berset (Secretary General of the Council of Europe), Yolanda Díaz (Spanish government minister), Hanno Pevkur (Estonian Defence Minister), Wolfgang Schmidt (former chief of Chancellor Scholz's office), and Cristina Gherasimov (Vice-Prime Minister of Moldova). From Ukraine and its neighbourhood, Oleksandr Kamyshin (advisor to President Zelensky) and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (Belarusian opposition leader) participated. Sir Richard Moore, former chief of MI6, also attended. Academic and intellectual participants included Olivier Blanchard (MIT, former IMF chief economist), Klaas Knot (former Dutch Central Bank), Philip Pettit (Princeton), Oleksandra Matviichuk (Nobel Peace Prize 2022), and Emmanuel Carrère (French novelist). The 2026 speaker roster has not been announced. ## Edition history and context The Sommet Grand Continent was first held in December 2023 in the Aosta Valley, making it one of the more recent entrants to the European high-level political summit circuit. The inaugural 2023 edition brought together approximately 130 European personalities, a figure that rose to around 180 by the 2025 edition, suggesting steady growth in reach and ambition. The 2026 edition will be the fourth, assuming the annual December rhythm holds. The rapid accumulation of credibility reflects GEG's positioning: the patronage of two heads of state, the symbolic Alpine setting, and the journal's editorial standing in European policy circles combined to establish the summit as a serious off-cycle forum within three years of founding. ## FAQ · Identity and audience ### Is the Sommet Grand Continent affiliated with the European Union or any government? No. The summit is organised by GEG, an independent think tank, not by an EU institution or any national government. It operates under the High Patronage of the French and Italian presidents, which signals diplomatic recognition, but the event is editorially independent. GEG is based in Paris and receives no direct EU operational mandate. ### What language is the summit conducted in? Sessions run in French and English, consistent with the bilingual editorial identity of the journal Le Grand Continent. GEG was founded in a French academic milieu but publishes content across multiple European languages. ### How does this summit differ from the World Economic Forum or similar high-level gatherings? The Sommet Grand Continent is an invitation-only event without fee-based attendance tiers, commercial exhibition space, or corporate sponsorship visibility. It is structured as a sustained thematic seminar with one editorial axis per edition, which concentrates discussion more narrowly than broader gatherings. The Alpine location and the think-tank organisational model also mean it operates outside the standard commercial conference infrastructure. ### Who is the Sommet Grand Continent NOT designed for? - Professionals seeking networking in trade, investment, or commercial deal-making contexts - Attendees looking to exhibit products or services - Researchers seeking a forum for presenting academic papers in a standard conference format - General-public or open-registration attendees; this is a closed, curated event - Corporate communications or public affairs teams seeking brand placement opportunities ## The venue: Grand Hotel Billia, Saint-Vincent The Grand Hotel Billia is a historic five-star hotel in Saint-Vincent in the Aosta Valley, situated in the Western Italian Alps near the French border. The property has hosted high-profile events before and provides the residential setting for the main working sessions on December 3-4 of the 2025 edition. The Aosta Valley region, France's closest Alpine neighbour in Italy, holds symbolic resonance as a francophone territory at the geographical heart of the European continent. The 2025 programme also included a session at the Petit Cervin glacier at 3,883 metres, using the Alpine setting as a deliberate setting for the summit's closing discussion. ## The organiser: Groupe d'études géopolitiques (GEG) The Groupe d'études géopolitiques was founded in 2017 by three students from the École normale supérieure in Paris: Gilles Gressani, Mathéo Malik, and Pierre Ramond. It began as a series of geopolitics debates at ENS before launching Le Grand Continent in 2019, a multilingual journal focused on European strategic, political, and cultural questions. Within six years, GEG grew from a student initiative into a think tank with institutional patronage from two European heads of state and a summit attracting sitting prime ministers. Gilles Gressani serves as director of the journal and is the public face of the Sommet. The organisation's editorial model prioritises long-form analysis and avoids the consulting or lobbying revenue streams common to larger policy think tanks. GEG's website is geopolitique.eu; the journal is at legrandcontinent.eu. The organisation's LinkedIn page is maintained under the GEG name and lists its location as Paris, France. --- ## Editorial take *The Sommet Grand Continent occupies a distinct niche on the European circuit: a think-tank-convened, invitation-only Alpine retreat that places sitting prime ministers alongside Nobel laureates and frontline opposition figures in a three-day seminar format anchored by a single thematic axis, with no commercial exhibition component or fee-based access tiers.* ## How to register and what it costs The Sommet Grand Continent is an invitation-only event. There is no open registration process and no publicly advertised fee structure. Participation is by invitation from the Groupe d'études géopolitiques, extended to individuals whose profile fits the curatorial criteria for a given edition's thematic focus. Access to the detailed programme, participant list, and summit documentation is available to members of Le Grand Continent. Press inquiries can be directed to presse[at]legrandcontinent.eu. There is no mechanism for unsolicited attendance requests described on the public-facing summit website. ## FAQ · Access and practicalities ### Can organisations purchase delegate passes or sponsorship packages? Based on available information, the summit does not offer delegate passes for purchase or visible commercial sponsorship tiers. The event operates on an invitation and membership model; there is no publicly available pricing structure for corporate or individual attendance. ### Where can I find the programme for the 2026 edition? The programme is distributed to Le Grand Continent members. The summit website at summit.legrandcontinent.eu is the official channel for announcements. As of June 2026, the 2026 programme has not been published. ### Is accommodation at the Grand Hotel Billia included in an invitation? Accommodation arrangements are not described publicly. Given the residential nature of the summit and its invitation-only format, logistics are handled directly by GEG with confirmed participants. ## Resources | Resource | URL | |---|---| | Official website | https://summit.legrandcontinent.eu/ | | Organiser (GEG) | https://geopolitique.eu/ | | Journal Le Grand Continent | https://legrandcontinent.eu/ | | GEG on LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/gegeurope | --- **Last verified:** 2026-06-11 **Next review:** 2026-07-11 **Notes:** 2026 exact dates not confirmed as of June 2026; anticipated December 2026 based on annual pattern. Attendance figure of ~180 is self-reported by the organiser. The 2025 edition ran December 2-5 at the Grand Hotel Billia in Saint-Vincent, Aosta Valley. First edition held December 2023. The 2026 edition will be the fourth. Speaker list for 2026 not yet published. **Variables:** 41/58 **Concept definition:** not applicable