Allied For Startups at the S9+ Lisbon Summit

On 16 October, Allied For Startups joined the S9+ Summit in Lisbon, where we proudly presented the S9+ Lisbon Declaration to the D9+ Ministers, delivering a clear message: If Europe wants to stay competitive globally, we must simplify to scale, invest to grow, and innovate to include.

Hosted by Startup Portugal under Portugal’s D9+ Presidency, the Summit brought together digital ministers from the D9+ countries, founders, startup associations, and innovation leaders for open and honest discussions on how to make Europe a simpler, faster, and fairer place to build and scale a company.

The day included powerful insights and exchanges – from the joint B9+ & S9+ session to dynamic panels on digital simplification, inclusion and skills, AI leadership, and more. The sessions featured high-level speakers such as Bernardo Correia (Portuguese Secretary of State for Digitalisation), Paulo Magro da Luz (Portuguese Secretary of State for Government Simplification), and João Rui Ferreira (Secretary of State of Economy of Portugal), as well as AFS members and other key ecosystem players.

We thank all D9+ Ministers for engaging in constructive dialogue with the ecosystem, the S9+ Coalition for its united voice, and especially Startup Portugal for hosting such an inspiring summit.

Europe’s startup ecosystem is ready to deliver. Now it’s time for policy to match its ambition.

S9+ Coalition: Danske Iværksættere (Danish Entrepreneurs), Startup Poland, Adigital, Dutch Startup Association, Startup Portugal, Estonian Founders Society, SISP – Swedish Incubators & Science Parks, Allied For Startups, Scale-Ups.eu/SuperNova, Finnish Startup Community, and the Czech Startup Association.