Many activists and activists had asked for a European company register as part of EU Inc. Today’s EU legislative proposal has indeed included one.
Today the EU Inc or ’28th Regime’ legislative proposal was officially launched by the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels, after its first appearance in Davos in January. It also includes the much-requested European company register, despite earlier indications that this would not be heard and not part of the proposal.
“It can take weeks or months to establish a company or start a business in another country in the single market,” von der Leyen said this morning in Brussels. “Barriers inside Europe hurt us more than taxes from outside. Across our union, entrepreneurs who want to raise the standard are the first victims of legal fragmentation. Instead of a single market, they are faced with 27 legal systems and more than 60 national company forms. And the consequences are real.”
“The time and money spent fills the papers that are spent on creating or innovating,” he said. “Obviously, this has to change and fast. So here is EU Inc, the 28th state.”
The EU Inc received a boost from its launch in 2024, and von der Leyen’s announcement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, was widely hailed as progress. Now today it includes many features that the fledgling community desperately wanted.
What is included?
The integration benchmark of 48 hours – the Holy Grail of many in the European startup sector – is there, as expected when it was included in von der Leyen’s Davos speech. Less expected was the confirmation that the proposal includes the EU business registration of EU Inc companies.
“EU Inc creates the framework of a single European company,” said von der Leyen. “It is one simple set of rules that applies to all of our single market of 450m consumers. It will make it much easier to start and grow a business in Europe. Any entrepreneur will be able to create a company within 48 hours anywhere in the European Union, fully digitalized for less than €100 and without a small capital budget.
“At the heart of this proposal is one simple principle, ‘only once’. Companies will provide their information to public authorities, data only once, and that information will be shared automatically between the relevant authorities, from business registers to taxes to Social Security … and this information will be stored and easily accessible in the new EU Business register of EU Inc companies.”
The third part of EU Inc will be about talent, he said.
“Now, with EU Inc, employee stock options will be easier to grant and easier to manage across borders, so it will help companies to compete with the best people, and founders will be able to protect companies and employees from unwanted takeovers,” said von der Leyen.
Finally he addressed the much-discussed ‘dangerous factor’. Many in the community had pointed to the lack of risk-taking culture in Europe, where failure was not seen as a necessary part of any real startup ecosystem.
“In business, failure should not be the end of the road,” said von der Leyen. “It should be part of the journey. With EU Inc, we want to reward businesses and make them less risky, that’s why we will fully integrate the insolvency procedures and introduce a faster insolvency process for start-ups so that entrepreneurs can start again easily.”
He also addressed the concerns of labor activists and unions surrounding EU Inc.
“Let me clarify one important point. The EU Inc proposal will respect in every way the existing social standards and labor law, and this includes all the rights of workers to participate in company boards. The proposal includes strong safeguards to ensure that such laws are implemented.”
Improving EU implementation and scales
The EU-INC, an organization with more than 22,000 signatories that includes the founders of Stripe and financial players from Sequoia to Index, has been running a policy campaign since October 2024 pushing for the creation of the so-called 28 regime, and in 2025 it will present legislative proposals to the Commission.
DC Cahalane is a venture partner at Sure Valley Ventures. In his op-ed in September last year on SiliconRepublic.com, he described EU Inc as “Europe’s biggest opportunity to build a globally competitive tech ecosystem”.
Simon Paris is the CEO of Unit4, a business software company headquartered in Utrecht. He told siliconrepublic.com that he is very optimistic about the potential for Europe to create European software champions and that he sees EU Inc as a good step in the right direction.
“Some say we should focus our efforts elsewhere, as we are far behind the US and China,” he said. “I don’t agree. I will remind the critics of Europe’s decision to build Airbus in response to the need for an alternative to Boeing. A collective decision was made to define this as a priority for the region, despite all the risks involved. As the example of Airbus shows, we have been there before, and we made it happen.”
Money challenge
Access to finance remains a major challenge for Europeans compared to their US and Chinese counterparts, and von der Leyen addressed this briefly, saying there are plans ahead to address this.
“This is still the beginning. We will make it easier for business capital to enter businesses,” he said. “This will be done by the savings and investment union. We will explore new opportunities for cross-border telecommunications, startups and high-end. And today, we also accepted the recommendation to harmonize the definition of new startups and high-rises across Europe so that we can design better policies to help our businesses grow and prosper in Europe.”
In a recent press conference Henna Virkkunen, the senior vice president of the European Commission said that the aim was to have an EU Inc regime by the end of 2026.
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