A proposed company status could reshape how European startups scale, but founders warn that small legal changes may undermine the entire model.
European startup founders and venture capital investors are calling on European Union lawmakers to preserve the key provisions of the EU Inc initiative. The proposed model would create a single corporate status under which businesses could be registered under common rules and operate across all EU countries.
Based on data from Techcrunch
In an open letter published on Thursday, representatives of Europe’s startup ecosystem warned that removing the proposal’s core elements could make the new corporate structure impractical to use.
The initiative has already received support from the European Union’s highest institutions, but the final text still needs to be agreed upon by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. Professional associations in individual countries are also influencing the negotiations. Germany’s association of notaries, in particular, has criticized some provisions of the European Commission’s proposal.
What the EU Inc initiative proposes
The letter’s authors believe that a common corporate regime would help reduce administrative barriers and overcome the fragmentation of the European market. In their view, this would make it easier for companies to scale, encourage investment, and support the creation of new technology businesses.
Among their main demands, the founders and investors are calling for a single central company registry. They also insist that employees should pay tax on the options they receive only after the relevant assets are actually sold, rather than when the options are granted.
Startup community representatives emphasize that these practical details will determine whether EU Inc becomes a useful tool for founders, employees, and investors.
The devil is in the details, and those are exactly what we will be watching very closely.
– Martin Mignot, partner at Index Ventures
Martin Mignot expressed this view back in 2024, when a petition supporting EU Inc began gaining traction. Accel partner Sonali de Rycker, Sequoia partner Michael Moritz, and Atomico founder Niklas Zennström have also joined the new campaign.
Who supports common rules for companies
Supporters of the initiative include the founders of companies that later became unicorn startups, including Alan, ElevenLabs, Lovable, Mistral, and Synthesia.
Some of these businesses are now headquartered in the United States. This highlights one of EU Inc’s key goals: creating conditions in Europe that enable promising companies to grow without having to move their core operations outside the continent.
The initiative’s future will depend on whether European lawmakers can preserve the proposed mechanisms in the final text while also reconciling them with the positions of member states and professional organizations.
