There’s a great petition going around: https://www.eu-inc.org/
The drive for this:
Unlike in the US, continent-wide investments and collaboration are rare in Europe—less than 18% of first-round investments are pan-European. The complexity of navigating multiple legal systems is a key barrier.
Founders are stuck in national silos, which are limiting opportunities, slowing funding, and hindering innovation.
I can totally echo this sentiment. As a startup founder and former General Counsel of a German unicorn B2B SaaS business, I have suffered the pains of trying to work across the EU with starting and growing a company, including:
- Incorporation / company maintenance – going through notaries to incorporate or do basic changes to a company is just a high tax for low value. The process is slow and expensive, and difficult to navigate even with a legal background.
- Employee stock participation plans – some way to be able to incentivise employees (and contractors) through stock option grants in one unified way is a big unlock for the European startup scene. This is a combination of corporate law and tax law as well – the taxation of these plans drives the structure of the plan so that employees are not unintentionally punished for getting what’s supposed to be an incentive.
- Formalities and streamlining bureaucracy. Formalities, like German notaries reading out contracts, add no value and waste time. The whole process for incorporation can be much smoother in some countries and focus on what’s actually possible for someone wanting to start a company (like the weird loop I’ve experienced in France of needing a bank account for a company that hasn’t been registered yet).
It’s also important to clarify areas that not only would be difficult to harmonise, but should stay different (IMO). My view:
- Employment law should generally be local law (though with some areas of harmonisation). Employment law is not totally harmonised in the US (for example), and employment law reflects each countries social structures and approach to government, which should remain. Harmonisation areas in relation to employment would be around areas like whistleblowing, AML/CTF, Export control, and of course taxes around stock options.
Let’s work together so that this starts to make real progress.
SIDE NOTE: I will say that while my experience starting a company in Amsterdam has had its challenges, which can for sure be improved and harmonised across Europe, it is much better than trying to start a company in other countries. Let's hope that at least here in NL we can keep trying to improve the experience.