Everyone talks about EU Inc as a big reform – but Volt co-founder Boeselager says: The real drama is not the content, but the time. And Europe is running away from it.
Trump’s appearance in Davos showed it again: Everything Europe does today must contribute to our military, economic and democratic independence.
What does EU Inc have to do with it? Everything.
Because Europe has a problem: We pay higher energy prices in order not to finance Putin’s war. China has turned from a supplier into a competitor. And our largest sales market, the USA, is systematically making us more expensive with tariffs. Large corporations and unions are calling for subsidies, but medium-sized businesses are somehow fighting their way through.
Why European startups are becoming American
At the same time, something dangerous is happening: New, innovative startups are registering in Delaware to gain access to the largest, truly unified single market in the world – and to capital, talent and knowledge between Berkeley and Stanford. All because we do not offer a functioning internal market for growth. This weakens us economically and endangers our freedom and democracy in this new world order.
Now – and not the day after tomorrow – is the opportunity to finally change Europe. Everything is waiting for a starting signal from Ursula von der Leyen. Europe must now establish new trade relationships and dismantle all internal borders between EU countries.
What in Brussels is whispered
For years there has been a great silence in the capitals regarding the European internal market. There are whispers in Brussels that further harmonization will fail anyway due to national sensitivities. And so Europe faced the greatest geopolitical crisis of our time by doing nothing ahead of time.
A small Gallic village of entrepreneur-activists from Germany fought back against this, conquering LinkedIn with a hashtag: #EUInc!
Their proposal: a voluntary, harmonized European legal form that can be founded equally quickly everywhere, offers equal investor rights and radically reduces complexity. In addition, employees should finally pay the same (low) taxes on employee participation everywhere in Europe.
After the European elections in 2024, with detailed positions and strategically clever meetings, they managed to push EU Inc. into the EU Commission’s program – and make it von der Leyen’s favorite promise to start-ups.
The apparatus that prevents rapid change
The activists returned to Berlin enthusiastically – and expected change. And then? Nothing happens for a long time.
The EU’s legislative process only begins with an impact study. This is followed by a proposed law, which is then negotiated for a year and a half – first separately in Parliament and with the 27 relevant ministers and then again between both houses. Depending on the legal act, it could then take another two years before the first EU Inc. could be registered in Germany. So we’re talking about a timeline of up to three and a half years – from today.
On my roadshow for EU Inc. across Europe, everyone from Helsinki to Nicosia looks at me in disbelief when I tell you this. And that’s why we have to keep pushing now.
A political shortcut that could save Europe
We should listen to the initiators and divide the EU Inc. into two parts: The core of company law, which will be pre-negotiated by the Commission with Parliament and the Council next month as a speedboat regulation – so that it can then pass through both houses as an urgent application without changes. We could then finish this in the spring. So in weeks, not years.
The other important but more controversial parts on taxation of ESOPs, labor law (to make it easier to hire people in different countries), and bankruptcy law would then have to be proposed simultaneously but separately in a longer process. This is the only way we can gain time in the short term – and in the long term we will not continue to lose the companies that support Europe’s future.
