The startup organisations in the most digitalized contries in the European Unionen, known as the D9+, have gathered forces and founded the coalition S9+.
The S9+ coalition represents startup organizations from the most digitally advanced countries in the EU, advocating for policy reforms to strengthen Europe’s digital innovation ecosystem and global competitiveness. We serve as the startup counterpart to the D9+, an informal group of ministers from the most digitized European countries. The D9+ convenes every six months to shape the direction of EU digital policies, bringing together the top-ranked nations in the European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), along with a few other countries that share similar ambitions for the Digital Single Market.
Our role as the startup voice in D9+ discussions is to ensure that the policies outlined in the group’s official declarations promote innovation and empower startups to grow and scale within Europe. When the ministers meet, we work to provide essential insights and support on how proposed policies affect the startup ecosystem. Our goal is to make sure that the D9+ agenda fosters an environment conducive to startups, avoiding the unintended consequences of stifling innovation, as we’ve seen with certain digital regulations over the past year.
The S9+ coalition is a subgroup of Allied for Startups and includes organizations from Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands.