On the sidelines of Davos World Economic Forumon January 20, 2026, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyenformalized the project EU-INC.
For more than a decade, entrepreneurs, investors and institutions have been pointing out the limits of a single market which ceases to be so when it comes to creating, financing or developing a business beyond the national borders of each member state. For the first time, the Commission takes on the objective of providing the Union with a single, predictable and immediately operational legal framework, enabling innovative companies to develop
In June 2025, the European Commission unveiled its strategy Startup & Scale-up with an ambition to transform the European Union into a space truly conducive to creation, financing and above all rise of innovative companies.
At the heart of the system is a project called the “28th diet”which is an optional pan-European legal framework, designed to allow startups to develop across the continent without having to change jurisdiction at each border.
Behind this technocratic term there is actually a central question: can Europe finally become a home market for its own technology companies?
TL;DR – Why the 28th regime is a game changer
For whom is it strategic?
- European startups in the scale-up phase
- Investment funds operating on a European scale
- Public decision-makers and regulators
- Large groups seeking to innovate through partnerships
- Researchers, TTOs and deeptech entrepreneurs
Why now?
- Europe creates more startups than the United States, but grows them less
- Late-stage financing is there 84% lower to those of the United States
- The single market remains legally fragmented
- Public procurement remains little open to innovation
- Only a third of university patents are exploited
What the 28th regime aims for
- Create a European company in less than 48 hours
- Operating in 27 countries under one single legal basis
- Reduce the administrative, legal and human cost of scaling up
- Make Europe credible in the face of the American and Chinese ecosystems
An old political project, put back at the center of the game
The idea of a single European legal framework for innovative companies is not new. It was put back on the table by Ursula von der Leyen at the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, with an explicit call to restart work towards a European code of business law.
This orientation has since been consolidated by the reports of Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi, who see it as an essential lever to overcome the fragmentation of the single market. The project is today led within the Commission by Ekaterina Zaharieva and Stéphane Séjourné.
The diagnosis: a Europe rich in startups, poor in scale-ups
In its analysis document, the Commission draws up an unambiguous observation. Europe has approximately 35,000 early-stage startups, 3.5 million tech professionals and more than 400 billion dollars raised in ten years. However, companies capable of taking the scale-up milestone remain rare, and European unicorns are struggling to establish themselves on a global scale.
“More startups are created in Europe each year than in the United States, and yet their growth often blocks change of scale. A real problem for our sovereignty,” observes Pascal Canfin.
Financing constitutes a first obstacle. In 2024, late-stage investments in the European Union remained much lower than those observed across the Atlantic. Towers exceeding fifty million euros remain rare and, in more than 40% of cases, managed by non-European investors.
Legal fragmentation, the Achilles heel of the single market
Beyond capital, the main obstacle is structural. A startup wishing to operate in several countries must deal with a mosaic of national rules: business creation, taxation, labor law, stock options, social protection, insolvency procedures.
The single market exists on paper, but not in the legal statutes.
It is precisely this friction that the 28th regime seeks to eliminate, by proposing a unified European frameworkdigital by default, to which companies could opt voluntarily.
“The objective is to enable local startups to become true European tech champions in a market of 450 million consumers,” summarizes Pascal Canfin.
Markets still difficult to access
The difficulty does not stop at the legal structuring. Market access remains a major obstacle. The public order represents up to 19% of European GDPbut alone 10% of purchases are oriented towards innovative solutions, compared to around 20% in the United States.
Partnerships with large private groups also remain limited: less than 1% of collaborative projects between startups and large companies lead to effective commercial deployment. Long purchasing cycles, high compliance requirements and low risk tolerance take a direct toll on young companies’ cash flow.
Research, patents and deeptech: poorly converted potential
Europe excels in scientific production, but struggles to transform this wealth into businesses. More than 10% of patents filed at the European Office come from universities, but only a third are exploited.
Technology transfer offices lack resources, and academic entrepreneurship remains little incentive for researchers.
The 28th regime also aims to streamline the creation of spin-offsby reducing legal uncertainty and facilitating their European projection from the outset.
A strategy structured around five levers
Faced with this diagnosis, the Commission structures its response around five priorities:
- Regulation adapted to innovation, with the 28th regime and European sandboxes
- Strengthening late-stage financing, via a Scale-up Fund managed by the EIC
- Opening of public procurement and private markets
- Mobilization of talents, stock options and cross-border teleworking
- Access to strategic infrastructures, notably via 13 AI Factories
For Stéphane Séjourné, “companies that are born in Europe must be able to grow in Europe”. Ekaterina Zaharieva, for her part, evokes a clear desire: to make Europe “the best place in the world to create and develop a business”.
Partial alignment with the ecosystem
The 28th regime project joins the long-standing proposals made by France Digitale and a coalition of European organizations, which are pleading for a single, immediately operational and truly pan-European status.
If the Commission’s strategy takes up several of these pillars, it still remains general and postpones a number of structuring decisions to 2026, this first announcement sets the ball rolling.
The real issue: sovereignty and economic power
Beyond the technical devices, the 28th regime crystallizes a broader ambition. It’s no longer just about creating startups, but create companies capable of sustainably influencing global value chainswithout systematically depending on capital, technologies or non-European markets.
“It is an issue of economic and political sovereignty,” insists Pascal Canfin. The question is therefore not so much whether Europe knows how to innovate, but if it finally agrees to give itself the means to grow its own champions.
