Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen officially announced the EU Inc initiative.
The EU Inc movement has gathered steam since its launch back in 2024, and yesterday it got a shot in the arm with an official announcement from European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who was addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos.
In her speech, von der Leyen said the Commission would soon put forward its “28th Regime” measure which would see start-ups and companies able to register a company in any member state within 48 hours – and all online.
Europe has all the assets it needs to attract investment, she said, but now it needs to mobilise these assets to their full potential and focus on creating a conducive and predictable regulatory environment for European start-ups and scale-ups.
“We live in an age where capital and data can cross Europe in a second, and business must be able to move just as freely,” she said. “But as things stand, too many companies have to look abroad to grow and scale up – partly because they face a new set of rules every time they expand into a new Member State.
“So while on paper the market of 450m Europeans is open to them, it is far more complicated in reality. And that acts as a handbrake on the growth and profit potential of companies.”
“We will soon put forward our 28th regime. The ultimate aim is to create a new truly European company structure. We call it EU Inc., with a single and simple set of rules that will apply seamlessly all over our Union.
“Our entrepreneurs, the innovative companies, will be able to register a company in any Member State within 48 hours – fully online. They will enjoy the same capital regime all across the EU.
Von der Leyen said Europe needed a system where companies can do business and raise financing seamlessly across Europe, as easily as in markets like the US or China.
“If we get this right – and if we move fast enough – this will not only help EU companies grow. But it will attract investment from across the world.”
The 48-hour incorporation benchmark has been the Holy Grail for many in the European start-up sector. The announcement marks a major success for EU-INC, a movement with over 22,000 signatories that include the founders of Stripe and venture capital players from Sequioa to Index. It has been running a policy campaign since October 2024 pushing for the creation of the so-called ‘28th regime’, and in 2025 presented legal 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 greatest opportunity to build a unified tech ecosystem that can compete globally”.
“We have all the ingredients for success – world-class technical talent, deep domain expertise, strong universities and increasingly sophisticated capital markets. What we’ve been missing is the infrastructure to connect it all seamlessly,” he said. “EU Inc represents that missing link.”
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