The EU is to have a new common European company structure called EU Inc. It will make it possible to set up a new company online across the 27 EU countries within 48 hours.
This is what the European Commission is proposing in a new proposal that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday.
- Europe has the talent, ideas and ambitions to become the best place for innovators. But today, European entrepreneurs who want to expand their business are faced with 27 different legal systems and more than 60 national company forms. With EU Inc. we are making it significantly easier to start and expand a business anywhere in Europe, says von der Leyen.
However, EU Inc. does not replace national company law frameworks. Instead, it is a voluntary harmonised company law framework that is available throughout the EU to all companies.
Companies established under the programme must also continue to comply with the national labour and social legislation of the 27 EU countries. This is intended to ensure decent working conditions, but will certainly also pose a continuing challenge for companies under EU Inc., which will thus still have to deal with different sets of rules in the 27 EU countries.
DI: Important step forward for the EU's internal market
The Confederation of Danish Industry and the Confederation of Danish Enterprise welcome the proposal.
- It is an important step forward for the EU's internal market. It gives start-ups and scale-ups in particular a modern, digital and flexible company framework, says Deputy Director of DI, Kim Haggren.
The EU Commission hopes to get the EU countries and the EU Parliament to adopt EU Inc. in 2026. According to von der Leyen, the proposal is a first step towards the EU's 28th regime, which will give companies better opportunities to exploit the benefits of the single market. It will pave the way for European companies to have a globally recognised company form that covers the whole of Europe.
- This crucial step is just the beginning. Our goal is clear: one Europe - one market by 2028, says von der Leyen.
European policy head at the Danish Business Council, Andreas Geertsen, calls the overall proposal for the EU's 28th regime "one of the most significant business policy reforms in decades".
- Far too many companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, today find that it is both expensive and administratively burdensome to expand their business to other member states, says Andreas Geertsen.
In addition to online registration in 48 hours, the EU Commission proposes that the price for starting a company under EU Inc. should be "below 100 euros". At the same time, there will be no minimum capital requirement. This is more lenient than, for example, a limited liability company in Denmark, which requires a minimum share capital of 20,000 kroner.
According to the proposal, EU Inc. companies will only have to submit their company information once via an EU platform that connects the national company registers. The next step, according to the proposal, will be a new central EU register. This will allow EU Inc. companies to be assigned their tax identification and VAT number without having to submit documents again.
According to the proposal, EU Inc. companies will be free to choose in which EU countries they wish to be registered. Here, according to the proposal, they will be guaranteed the same treatment as national companies in the individual countries.
/ritzau/
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