Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland holds the chairmanship of the D9+ from January to June of this year. I will host the flagship event the D9+ Ministerial Meeting, which will take place in Dublin Castle on 19 April. The meeting will bring together Digital Ministers from the twelve D9+ countries and will be an opportunity to discuss priority digital policy issues at EU level and to exchange best practice on national approaches to digitalisation.

As is the case with previous meetings, the B9+, made up of IBEC and the equivalent business representative organisations from those Member States, will as part of the programme, have the opportunity to exchange with Ministers. The day before, 18 April, the Digital Ireland Conference will be held in the same venue. Although not formally a D9+ event, it will complement our D9+ objectives by bringing together industry representatives, academia, and political figures, to showcase Ireland’s digital ambitions, and influence EU digital policy discussions. A number of other smaller events are being considered, including those organised by Ireland’s network of embassies.

The D9+ is an informal alliance of 12 digital frontrunner EU Member States. It comprises top-ranked European countries in the European Commission annual Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), plus a small number of other countries who share similar ambitions for the Digital Single Market. The Ministers generally meet twice a year to build on their collective strengths in advanced digital policy and to confront the challenges associated with and to influence EU digital policy. Ireland holds the Chairmanship from January to June 2024. The other D9+ countries are Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.