Vienna Statement – June 2026

Europe must set its own robotics agenda. While public fascination focuses on folding laundry or choreographed humanoid dancing routines, European citizens, industries, and institutions face urgent challenges that only capable robotic systems can address. These range from sustaining food and energy security, supporting an ageing population, reshoring manufacturing at scale, to maintaining critical infrastructure, securing space assets, and intervening in deep-sea emergencies.

Building on the Tallinn Statement (December 2025), this paper articulates the euRobotics community’s position on three questions: Where are robots mission-critical for European sovereignty and resilience? How should AI contribute to these systems, and where should it not? And what must we do next to convert European strengths into a strategic global position?

Our answer is grounded in three principles: robots should work with and for people, not only instead of them; economic viability and sustainability are design requirements, not an afterthought; and the robotics community bears responsibility for the societal and environmental consequences of its work.

Tallin Statement – December 2025

The global robotics landscape has fundamentally shifted, driven by geopolitical tensions, supply chain vulnerabilities, and accelerating technological competition, with impact in Europe compounded by a lack of strategic focus. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and disruptions to international trade (e.g., through global pandemics, tariffs and trade barriers) have exposed critical dependencies and highlighted the urgent need to foster resilience and strategic autonomy through sustainable engagement and investment to strengthen European technological sovereignty.

How can we support and encourage the European polity to build on European robotics and create a competitive European robotics ecosystem? Geopolitical challenges require modernisation of production technologies, both for civil and defence applications. Creating manufacturing autonomy across key sectors is both a strategic and economic imperative.

Robotics is a key enabler for resilience in Europe. However, Europe currently lacks a comprehensive strategy for building a resilient robotics supply chain. We need to design innovative approaches to reduce Europe’s vulnerabilities, specifically through strategic collaborations that guarantee access to critical components.

A Unified Vision for European Robotics – December 2024

euRobotics is pleased to announce the public launch of ‘A Unified Vision for European Robotics’, a new strategy for innovation, growth and societal impact. It sets out the collective vision of the European Robotics community and draws on multiple sources of information from within Europe and beyond. Publication is timely – and urgent, because Europe needs robots more than ever to maintain its economic advantage and address its demographic and climate-related challenges. 

 Europe is a leader in robotics but the clock is ticking. A “Whole Europe” approach to research, innovation, deployment and uptake is needed, with the triangle of research, industry and policy makers all working together within a common framework to support innovation from lab bench to market in an unbroken chain, with standards and regulation aligned with market and innovation needs, and investment and fiscal policy enabling growth, not only in robotics but also within sectors that can raise productivity through the greater use of smarter robots. This requires strategic investment today; in education, skills, technology, research, deployment and uptake to maximise robotics’ economic and societal benefits.

Read about our eight recommendations by downloading ‘A Unified Vision for European Robotics’

We thank everyone who has contributed to ‘A Unified Vision for European Robotics’. With this new strategy we will start a fresh debate on the priorities for robotics in Europe.

Join us to help shape the future of robotics in Europe and achieve the goals we have set out.