EU Inc.: Brussels plans turbo-incorporation for European startups
With new, purely digital legal form, EU Commission wants to break down bureaucratic hurdles and open up the entire internal market for start-ups more quickly.
(Image: AB Visual Arts / Shutterstock.com)
Europe wants to catch up in the global tech race and is introducing a new, 28th legal form with “EU Inc.”. It is intended to pave the way for founders through the previously fragmented system of 27 national systems.
One reason: In 2025, the USA recorded almost 2000 “unicorns” – young companies valued at over a billion US dollars. The EU only managed 331 in parallel. The EU Commission now wants to remedy this disadvantage in location by radical simplification. The centerpiece of the reform presented on Wednesday is the possibility to found a company completely digitally and for less than 100 euros within just 48 hours. No minimum capital is required for this.
This optional legal form exists parallel to national models such as the GmbH. However, it is intended to create a uniform set of rules for the entire internal market and thus facilitate cross-border growth for particularly innovative start-ups.
Administrative savings
According to the plan, the digital focus of EU Inc. (Incorporated) can run through the entire life cycle of a company: from founding to share transfer to liquidation, all processes should be possible without physical presence or expensive intermediaries. Through a new EU central register and the “European Business Wallet” – a digital wallet comparable to the Citizen EUDI – data only needs to be transmitted once. This could reduce administrative costs by up to 440 million euros over ten years.
Furthermore, the EU wants to introduce attractive framework conditions for talent and investors, such as an EU-wide harmonized system for employee stock options, where taxes are only due when the shares are sold. Modern financing instruments are also to be directly integrated into the legal framework to increase attractiveness for venture capitalists.
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At the same time, the Commission wants to cushion entrepreneurial risk. The package provides for simplified insolvency proceedings, which should enable founders to restart more quickly after a failure. An agreement with the EU Parliament and the member states is to be reached by the end of 2026 so that an EU Inc. can be registered in 2028. The goal is to make Europe the most attractive location for innovation worldwide and to permanently stop the outflow of know-how to Silicon Valley.
(wpl)
