Allied For Startups & S9+ Coalition Policy Summit

On 3 February 2026, we had the pleasure of hosting our annual General Assembly, and co-organising the AFS & S9+ Policy Summit, taking place at Plein Publiek in Brussels.

The Summit kicked off with a fireside chat with Startup Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva, reflecting on the first year in office, on what Europe is doing well for startups, and where policy still creates friction for founders and scaleups.

Next came “Stay or Go: A Live Startup Journey,” where step by step, we followed Maria – a fictional German data scientist building a responsible AI-driven “pay later” fintech startup. The audience and speakers stepped into her shoes, navigating the dilemmas she would face from idea to exit.

Each stage brought diverse perspectives from:

– Policymakers: MEP Arba Kokalari (European People’s Party), MEP Damian Boeselager (The Greens/EFA), and Anna Krzyzanowska, Adviser for Startups & Scaleups (European Commission).

– Ecosystem voices: Hedi Mardisoo (Cachet, Estonian Founders Society); Lucien Burm (Dutch Startup Association), Ellinor Bokedal (SISP), and Peter Kofler (Danish Entrepreneurs, The S9+ Coalition), moderated by Simon Schaefer (Factory, Allied For Startups, EU-INC).

The takeway? Europe has great potential – but founders experience it as a journey of compounded frictions. If we want them to stay, policies need to work across the full lifecycle, not in isolation.

The event closed with networking and the Artcade exhibition, combining serious discussions with creativity, connections, and… Belgian beer and fries.

A huge thank you to our members, the S9+ Coalition, our speakers, attendees, and everyone who has supported the “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” campaign so far. Together, we’re pushing for an ambitious EU-INC to make Europe the best place to start and scale a company.