Start-ups get more tailwind in the EU

The Enterprise Europe Network informs:

28.05.2025

The European Commission has presented an EU strategy for start-ups and scale-ups with the aim of making Europe an attractive location for the creation and growth of global technology companies. Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné emphasized that companies that are founded in Europe should also grow in Europe by reducing bureaucracy, facilitating access to finance and improving business opportunities in the single market.

The strategy addresses challenges that prevent start-ups and scale-ups from bringing ideas to market and growing within the EU. It focuses on five main areas:

• Promoting an innovation-friendly environment: this includes proposals for a new single regulatory framework ("28th regime") to simplify rules and reduce the costs of failed entrepreneurship. A "European Wallet for Business" to facilitate digital interactions with public authorities.
• Better financing: The Savings and Investment Union initiative aims to open up more financing and investment opportunities. There are also plans to expand the European Innovation Council and set up a "Scaleup Europe Fund" to close financing gaps for deep-tech companies.
• Supporting market uptake and expansion: The "Lab to Unicorn" initiative aims to promote the networking of university ecosystems and support the commercialization of intellectual property and the creation of spin-offs.
• Recruitment and retention of top talent: The "Blue Carpet" initiative focuses on entrepreneurial education, tax aspects of employee stock options and cross-border employment. The Commission also wants to promote the Blue Card Directive and introduce fast-track procedures for start-ups from non-EU countries.
• Easier access to infrastructure, networks and services: An access charter for industrial users aims to simplify and harmonize access to technology and research infrastructures in order to reduce time-to-market.

The strategy emphasizes that start-ups and scale-ups need less fragmentation, administrative burden and simplified rules across the single market.

Press release of the European Commission

About the strategy

Source: European Commission