On March 18, the European Commission launched EU Inc. — the legislative proposal that forms the cornerstone of what Brussels calls the "28th regime." The headline features are real: 48-hour incorporation, under €100, no minimum share capital, fully digital. The inclusion of an EU Business Registry was unexpected and marks a genuine win for the startup community that lobbied hard for it.

But read past the press release and the picture is more nuanced. Even the EU-INC movement — the 22,000-signatory coalition of founders and investors that pushed hardest for this — noted that "the proposal defers interpretation to national courts, risking 27 divergent outcomes." This is not a unified European framework. It is a new option layered on top of 27 existing ones, with national courts still deciding disputes.

The EU has attempted pan-European company structures before — Societas Europaea in 2004, European Private Company in 2010, Single-Member Company in 2014. All failed to achieve meaningful uptake. The difference this time is political and competitive pressure: the Draghi report, 22,000 signatories, and direct Commission priority status. But delivery still depends on what happens next in Parliament and Council.

Most coverage focuses on the Commission's proposal. The real text will emerge from a different set of players. Here is who matters most — not procedurally, but strategically for the outcome founders care about.

Alongside EU Inc., the Commission adopted something that received almost no media coverage but matters right now: an official Recommendation on the EU-level definitions of innovative startup and innovative scaleup. These definitions determine eligibility for EIC Accelerator, Horizon Europe instruments, and increasingly, national funding programmes that align with EU standards.

The EIC Accelerator has €634 million available in 2026, with evaluation cycles every two months. Most founders who apply and get rejected at the first step fail not because their technology is weak — but because they cannot demonstrate eligibility clearly. Here is a quick-check with the traps most founders fall into:

In April, the JURI rapporteur is named and begins presenting their orientation. We will track what their position signals — and answer four questions that will define what EU Inc. actually means for founders.

We will also cover the European Business Wallet — the digital identity infrastructure that EU Inc. depends on — which is advancing in parallel and has implications for any company doing business across EU borders, regardless of whether EU Inc. passes.