Minister Dirk Beljaarts (Economic Affairs) will host the European D9+ Summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 March 2025. Ministers from the thirteen most digitalised EU Member States and EU Commissioner Henna Virkkunen (Vice-President of the European Commission) will come to Amsterdam for this event. The countries have joint ambitions to strengthen their digital economy, infrastructure and technologies, to better protect consumers and to ensure a matching European digital technology strategy.
The agenda in Amsterdam includes consultations to ensure more European private investment in digital technologies and to improve access to financing for growth companies. The ministers will also discuss connectivity and the challenge of ensuring more computing power to be able to develop European innovations in the field of both digital infrastructure and technology.
The participating countries will also have a meeting on artificial intelligence during the D9+. Both on AI applications in the economy, AI infrastructure and the use of AI in public services. During these discussions, various guest speakers will also provide insight into how business investments can be stimulated.
The following ministers from the D9+ countries will come to Amsterdam: Caroline Stage (Minister for Digital Affairs; Denmark), Liisa-Ly Pakosta (Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs; Estonia), Niamh Smyth (Minister of State for Trade, Promotion, AI 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 for Youth and Modernization; Portugal), Ksenija Klampfer (Minister of Digital Transformation, Slovenia), Oscar Lopez Águada (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 delegation from Belgium and Finland has not yet been announced.
The participants have the ambition to arrive at a final declaration in Amsterdam, which Minister Beljaarts will then hand over to EU Commissioner Virkkunen. At the same time as the D9+ Summit, consultations are also taking place in the Netherlands between business federations (B9+) and start-up and scale-up organizations (S9+) from the thirteen countries involved.
Origin of D9+
In 2016, Sweden launched an initiative called ‘Digital Frontrunners’ following a report in which nine EU member states were designated as frontrunners. Four new countries have since become members. They meet informally twice a year to work together on their ambitions in the field of digital economy and technology. There is a rotating presidency. After the Netherlands, Portugal will organize the next D9+ in the second half of 2025
