During the D9+ Summit, digital leaders will hold a strategic discussion on strengthening Europe’s competitiveness and increasing the resilience of Europe’s digital economy. On the sidelines of the summit, consultations will be taking place in the Netherlands between business confederations (B9+) and start-up and scale-up organisations (S9+) from the thirteen participating countries.
Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Dirk Beljaarts, will welcome ministers from the digitally advanced Member States and will be joined by EU Commissioner Henna Virkkunen (Vice-President of the European Commission).
Other participants include:
- Caroline Stage Olsen (Minister for Digital Government, Denmark)
- Liisa-Ly Pakosta (Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs, Estonia)
- Niamh Smyth (Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Artificial and Digital Transformation, Ireland)
- Elisabeth Margue (Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister for Media and Connectivity, Luxembourg)
- Dariusz Standerski (Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Poland)
- Margarida Balseiro Lopes (Minister of Youth and Modernisation, Portugal)
- Ksenija Klampfer (Minister of Digital Transformation, Slovenia)
- Óscar López Águeda (Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, Spain)
- Marian Jurečka (Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Czech Republic)
- Erik Slottner (Minister for Public Administration, Sweden)
The Belgian and Finnish delegations are yet to be announced.
What’s on the agenda?
The participating countries have joint ambitions to strengthen their digital economy, infrastructure and technologies, improve consumer protection and establish a coherent European digital technology strategy. Participants will be focusing on themes such as the investment agenda for digital technology and breaking down barriers to funding for growth companies. They will also be holding talks on connectivity and the challenge of boosting the continent’s computing power to fuel European innovations in digital infrastructure and technology. Additionally, the ministers will discuss ways to bridge the innovation gap and reap the benefits of AI in Europe.
The Netherlands has formulated a National Technology Strategy (NTS) comprising 44 Digital and Information Technologies, 10 of which are prioritised as key technologies. Topsector ICT is tasked with formulating Action Agendas for two key Digital and Information Technologies: AI/Data and Cybersecurity Technologies. The Action Agendas fall under the Knowledge and Innovation Agenda (KIA) Digitalisation.
The D9+ Summit in Amsterdam will also include a focus session on digital government. This session will be attended by Zsolt Szabó, Dutch Minister for Digitalisation and Kingdom.
The aim of the D9+ Summit is to review and refine the participating ministers’ shared vision and produce a valuable blueprint for Europe’s digital future. The ambition is to produce a final declaration that Minister Beljaarts will submit to the EU Commissioner Virkkunen.
Origins of the D9+ summit
In 2016, Sweden began the ‘Digital Frontrunners’ initiative following the release of a report identifying nine EU Member States as digital leaders. Four other countries have since joined the initiative. All members gather twice a year at an informal meeting to develop their ambitions for the digital economy and technologies, following a rotating presidency model. Portugal will take over from the Netherlands, the last edition’s president, to organise the D9+ Summit in the second half of 2025.