EU–INC

In collaboration with global law firms and legal experts, the EU.INC team went through the Commission's proposal bit by bit. It's not the 28th regime we campaigned for. It's not one fully harmonized new single European startup standard. It's not a centralized EU company law or a court system. It acts more like a plug-in into every country's existing legal system. It is a different approach from the original EU–INC proposal. BUT if implemented correctly, it can achieve the same goal: to create a pan-European standard. The one thing that matters most: free choice of registered seat. Without it, EU–INC becomes 27 new national regimes sharing a logo. Fragmentation with slightly better branding. The vote is coming. The next few weeks decide everything. A call to action: Post about EU–INC, talk to your policymakers, and share why Europe needs a real standard. The next phase, until July 16, really matters. How Brussels' proposal can work:

We need One Europe - One Standard. I agree. The EU–INC team did a deep dive into Brussels’ proposal for a pan-European corporate legal framework to enable startups to take full advantage of being European; and hire, build, sell and fundraise as if Europe is one jurisdiction. The conclusion: The proposal CAN work,  but ONLY if the free choice of registration seat stays in. Without it, it’s 27 national regimes sharing a logo, and not one standard, and it is currently being lobbied against. June is the window - share, write about this, tag your MEPs etc.. Ask them to protect the free choice of registration seat and implement this proposal correctly. For One Europe. One Standard. July 16 is the deadline. This is Europe’s startup moment, don’t let it get watered down. → Legal deep dive: eu-inc.org → Position paper: proposal.eu-inc.org Axel Voss, Pascal Canfin, René Repasi, Arash Saeidi, Sergey Lagodinsky, Morten Løkkegaard

🇬🇷 It was a pleasure to meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during Panathēnea to discuss EU–INC. We appreciate your support to make Europe the best place to start, fund and scale startups! This is Europe’s startup moment! Vassilis Koutsoumpas Andreas Klinger Iwona Anna Biernat Marvin Baumann Luis C. Simon Schaefer Robin Wauters

Hello from Athens ☀️ and the EU–INC team. We have something big to share today: As you might know, after two years of campaigning, 26,000 signatures, and countless conversations with founders, investors, and policymakers across Europe, the European Commission published a proposal for a corporate legal framework this March. They even named it after our campaign. That was a big moment. But a proposal with our name on it doesn’t automatically mean it will create a real standard. So we did a legal deep dive on behalf of the European startup community. We collaborated with top legal experts from Dentons, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, Bird & Bird. Here’s what we found and what it means for startups: It’s not the 28th regime we originally campaigned for. It’s not one fully harmonized European startup entity. It’s not a centralized EU company law. It acts more like a plug-in into every country’s existing legal system. But if implemented correctly,  it can achieve the same goal: a real pan-European standard. It works similar to how in the US, companies choose to register in Delaware but actually operate in California – under California taxes and laws. This is possible because of the free choice of registration seat. But this free choice is also the one thing that makes or breaks it. Without it, EU–INC becomes 27 national regimes sharing a logo. Fragmentation with slightly better branding. Several lobby groups are actively pushing to remove that clause. The very clause that makes this useful and makes a real standard possible. This is not the time to be quiet. June is our window to act.: Post about EU–INC. Ask for One Europe. One Standard.  Tag your MEPs and heads of state. Ask them to protect the free choice of registration seat and to implement this correctly so it creates a real European standard, not a half-measure. The startup ecosystem needs to be louder than the lobby groups.  The next phase, until July 16, really matters. This is Europe's startup moment, and we need your help to get it right. → Read our legal deep dive & position paper: eu-inc.org #EUINC #OneEuropeOneStandard Axel Voss Pascal Canfin René Repasi Sergey Lagodinsky Arash Saeidi and Mario Mantovani

Your EU-INC crew and some of our most active supporters. The team behind the Panathēnea Festival. A local DJ with clear instructions to drop some of the cheesiest and danciest Eurodance tunes from the 1990s. What more do you need to know? Actually, you need to know this: everyone is invited to this party until the Burger Disco Club (how cool is that name?) decides maximum capacity has been reached. The entrance fee is €10, but the first 100 people to register via the Luma link in the comments get in for free. First come, first served. If you were too late for free registration via the Luma link, there's no reason to register at all - simply show up at the club and bring your €10 bill (and perhaps your Panathēnea Festival badge and dancing shoes), and hope it's not filled to the rim with Europe lovers already! We can't wait to get jiggy with y'all!

“Build it and they will come” That seems to be the logic behind the European Commission’s EU Inc proposal. In my new post for the Oxford Business Law Blog, I take a closer look at what’s missing. A few key points: ➡ Incorporation is not the bottleneck; scaling is ➡ National laws still shape critical areas like financing and insolvency ➡ Legal fragmentation doesn’t disappear; it becomes a cost-of-capital problem My argument: EU Inc needs a learning mechanism. A structured way to test, measure, and adapt the framework based on how firms and investors actually use it. Curious to hear your opinion: what would make EU Inc truly “investable”? EU–INC #EUInc #startups #scaleups #venturecapital

We’re excited to welcome Andreas Klinger to Panathēnea 2026! Andreas Klinger is a globally active first-check and first-round investor, having participated in more than 90 deals including Remote.com, Lumalabs, Fly.io, and Sunrise Robotics. Previously, he was part of the founding team and CTO of Product Hunt, VP of Engineering at CoinList, Head of Remote at AngelList, and CTO at On Deck. Andreas is also one of the most active voices in European tech and co-initiated EU–INC, a proposal to create a pan-European legal entity that is now progressing toward becoming law. Now, he’s bringing his journey and insights across startups, investing, remote work, and European innovation to Panathēnea 2026, and we couldn’t be more excited to have him on our stage. Tickets are now open. Link: https://lnkd.in/dkUnT8AA

Saturday was Europe Day. Today, every European founder is back to selling into 27 separate countries. Europe has been pouring public capital into the funding gap with the US. The Scaleup Europe Fund alone is targeting €5 billion, and public commitments to European VCs have crossed €80 billion since 2025. None of it has closed the distance, because the gap was never just about money. What we do not have is a single market that behaves like one when you are trying to build inside it. A startup in Lisbon launching across the EU still faces: - 27 different consumer protection regimes - 27 procurement processes that average 18 months each - 27 employment laws that make hiring a senior engineer in Berlin different from hiring one in Paris - 27 ways for a regulator to say "not yet" We should celebrate Europe, but not pretend the market works as one. It is still a regulatory archipelago. Cross-border European companies are not winning because Brussels fixed something. They are winning because they built their own EU–INC inside the product, turning 27 jurisdictions into one user experience and absorbing the legal complexity behind the scenes. Now let's get to work and ship the Europe we keep celebrating, because nobody else will.