Hello and welcome everyone to this online conversation hosted by the European Center for International Political Economy on leadership in European Digital Policy and the future role and direction for the D9 Plus Group.

Launched in 2016, nine countries with a particular interest in matters of the digital economy,

met to learn from each other and seek common ground on policy issues, the D9 Group.

Since its founding, the group has expanded into the D9

Plus initiative and now also includes guest countries, but it remains fundamentally an initiative

of small and mid-sized, open-oriented economies with a strong interest to exploit the economic

power of digitalization and new emerging technologies.

In a recent ESI publication titled Leadership in European Digital Policy, Future Role and

Direction for the D9 Plus Group, it is argued that D9 plus countries have a lot in common,

digital and general economic characteristics that

should prompt them to be far more ambitious in promoting Europe's digital competitiveness.

My name is Philip Lamprecht and today I'm very pleased to welcome Raquel Jorge Ricard to this

conversation.

Raquel is technology, digital and cyber policy analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute in Spain.

Hi, Philip.

It's my pleasure to be here in this ISEIB podcast.

Thanks very much.

We are very happy to have you.

And my first question for you on this topic, Raquel, is how can the D9 Plus initiative

expand the scale and scope of digital technological change in the European economy?

And in particular, what is your take on the current role of Spain in the group?

Yes.

...