Issue #05 · September 2026 JURI vote pending · Council on 2nd compromise
Brussels translated into founder decisions — monthly
01 // Decision brief — what this means for founders this month
Do now
Interreg Euro-MED Call 8 opens 1 October, closes 13 November, 13:00 Brussels. ~€20M, max €2M per project, 80% co-financing for every partner type. SMEs as partners, not lead. It is the last competitive transnational Interreg call of 2021–27. Lock your consortium (8–12 partners) before it opens.
File an EIC Accelerator short application this month. The 4 November cut-off is out of reach unless your short application is already approved; aim for the first 2027 cut-off.
Do not do yet
Any EU Inc. restructuring. JURI is negotiating compromise amendments across 1,418 tabled amendments; the rapporteur's draft bans public listing and limits the form to non-listed companies. Nothing is settled until the committee votes.
Watch closely
JURI vote — slipped from the September target to 28 September or 8 October (sources conflict). Plenary indicatively 19 October.
First week of October: the Irish Presidency tables its MFF negotiating box with figures — the first real numbers for the €234bn ECF core (the €409bn headline still bundles Horizon Europe).
Ignore for now
EU-ESOP tax mechanics. Several member states reject any tax provision under Art. 114 TFEU; whatever survives will be an optional module under unanimity rules, not this year.
1,418
amendments tabled in JURI
→ plus 246 in draft report
2nd
Presidency compromise text in Council
→ ST 12824/26
€20M
last open Interreg call (Euro-MED)
↓ window closing 13 Nov
~2028
earliest EU Inc. operation
→ 12 months after entry into force
Who should care most EIC / Interreg applicants Raising in 12 months Branches in DE / AT Legal restructuring → not yet
From the editor — Issue #5
Since June's draft report: 1,418 amendments, two Council compromise texts, two committee opinions, one union demanding withdrawal. The political momentum is intact; the product is shrinking. Also: the Interreg 2021–27 window is shut except for one door. The EIC STEP Scale-Up treatment we promised moves to October; the Defence call is in the Ecosystem Radar.
⬤ Likely later impact
02 // EU INC. WATCH — NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE The form is narrowing: startups only, no listing, "place of employment" wins
June's four open questions — answered
Open
Did EPP soften the listing ban toward "conversion-on-listing"? Not yet. 1,418 amendments landed by 17 July; ECON's opinion (15 July, 34–13–9) backs market access; Voss fights the ban. Repasi's compromise amendments will decide it — the September vote slipped to late September or 8 October.
No
Did ECON push back on the Annex Ia sector exclusions? ECON spent its capital on listing. The exclusions came back harder: EMPL's opinion (10 September, 26–19–7) names eight excluded sectors and limits the form to non-listed startups and scale-ups.
Partly
Did the Irish compromise narrow the Council–Parliament gap? Two restricted texts (23 July, 10 September). They converge with Parliament on employee participation, not on legal basis or tax.
Yes
Did the ECF geographical-allocation provision survive? In the Council's 16 June partial position, yes — anti-concentration language plus an "ECF General Committee" with a say on work programmes. Parliament's ITRE vote is unconfirmed.
Win
Carve-outs move from recital to articles
On 7 September the Commission offered JURI to move its "no touch on labour law, social security or taxation" assurance from recital 83 into binding articles. That removes the unions' strongest argument without changing the product.
Still broken
Legal basis
Eight member states question Art. 114 TFEU; ETUC (23 June) demands withdrawal, citing a Council Legal Service view that Art. 50 is the correct base. Art. 50 would strip the tax and ESOP provisions. Nobody has resolved this.
Compromise
Employee participation → "place of employment"
Repasi, Sweden and the EMPL opinion converge on the place of employment as the connecting factor; the Presidency's second text adds a German-proposed optional model forcing large branches into subsidiaries. Expect this to pass in some form.
Open negotiation
Scope: startup form or company form?
Repasi's draft bans public listing (convert to a national form first) and excludes construction, cleaning, hospitality and transport. ECON and Canfin want listing allowed; BusinessEurope rejects sector exclusions.
Power players this month
Can dilute
René Repasi — JURI rapporteur (S&D)
Controls the compromise amendments now being drafted across five clusters: workers' rights, employee participation, preventive controls, a workable EU-ESOP, legal basis. His instinct is protection-first.
High influence · Listing ban is his
Can accelerate
Niamh Smyth — Irish Presidency
Publicly targets a Council mandate "as soon as possible", trilogue in November, deal by December. Working Party on Company Law meets 29 September and 8 October on the second compromise text.
Pushing · Deadline-driven
Can block
Germany
Co-determination is the red line. Its optional model — branches above host-state thresholds must spin off a subsidiary — is now inside the Presidency text. Whether it stays optional decides how much friction cross-border scale-ups inherit.
Medium risk · Model in text, status optional
Founder Impact Score — September 2026 proprietary framework · updated monthly
MED
Fundraising in next 12 months
↓ from HIGH in June
MED
Cross-border expansion
= June
HIGH
EIC / Horizon applicants
↑ from MED in June
WAIT
Legal restructuring
= June
Why fundraising drops: in June the listing ban was one rapporteur's draft; now the EMPL opinion repeats it and the compromise amendments are built around "non-listed startups and scale-ups only". If it survives, EU Inc. is a vehicle you leave before an IPO — which weakens the "seed to exit in one entity" pitch. Why EIC rises: four dated funding doors open in six weeks (Sections 03, 05). Main rules apply 12 months after entry into force: a December deal still means 2028.
Sources: OEIL 2026/0074(COD) · Council CM 3960/1/26, CM 4179/26 · COMPET 28 May · Agence Europe 1 & 9 Sept · the28thregime.eu tracker
⬤ Immediate impact
03 // MFF & FUNDING RADAR — INTERREG The 2021–27 Interreg window is closed. One door is left.

Interreg Europe: "all funds committed, no more open calls." Central Europe: final call closed November 2025 (73 applications, 25 funded). Danube: third call closed December 2025, 200 applications, no fourth announced. Baltic Sea, North-West Europe, Alpine Space: capitalisation calls only, for already-approved projects. Romania–Bulgaria, Romania–Hungary: private companies not eligible.

The one door still open — Interreg Euro-MED Call 8
01
Opens 1 October 2026, 13:00 — closes 13 November 2026, 13:00 Brussels. Technical meetings 10 October and 13 November.
02
~€20M total, max €2M per project, ~10 projects, 24 months. 80% co-financing for every partner, public or private.
03
8–12 partners across the Med area. Three missions: Green Living Areas, Innovative Sustainable Economy, Natural Heritage. Sustainable tourism excluded. Two-phase: written application via JEMS, then an oral pitch for pre-selected consortia. A six-week window with 8–12 partners means the partner search must already be done.
Eligibility quick-check — private SME / startup
ProgrammeAs partnerAs lead partner
Euro-MEDYesNo
Danube RegionYesNo
Central EuropeYesYes — financial-capacity test
Interreg EuropeNo — unfunded stakeholder onlyNo
RO–BG, RO–HUNoNo
The tip most applicants miss — GBER Art. 20, not de minimis

Programmes cover state aid for private partners two ways. De minimis burns your €300,000 / 3-year ceiling (Reg. 2023/2831) — headroom you will want for national grants. GBER Art. 20 covers up to €2M public contribution per partner per project at ≤80% intensity. Ask the lead partner which regime they file you under before you sign the partnership agreement.

The trap — you pre-finance 100%

Central Europe's FAQ says it plainly: beneficiaries "fully pre-finance" expenditure; only verified costs are reimbursed, via the lead partner, after first-level control. A €150k partner budget means carrying €150k for many months. Model it before you commit.

What the 2028–34 budget does to Interreg
16 Jul 2025
Commission proposal: €10.2bn, four strands kept, a single "Interreg Plan", 80% co-financing, n+1 decommitment (from n+3) — spend faster or lose it.
29 Jun 2026
Council partial general approach: the Interreg Plan stays separate from the national partnership plans — the one place regions won the centralisation fight.
Jan 2027
Risk: Parliament's Performance Regulation report slipped to mid-October over DNSH; plenary now likely January 2027. If the framework slips, the first 2028 calls slip with it.

Positioning for 2028: join a funded 2021–27 project as associated partner or subcontractor now — that track record is what lead partners look for when building 2028 consortia.

Sources: Euro-MED Call 8 · Interreg Central Europe FAQ · Interreg Europe · Council, 29 June 2026 · interreg.eu · Agence Europe 18 Sept
⬤ Forward signal
04 // SCIENCE SIGNAL Thicker electrodes, PFAS-free, 10–15% more energy per kilogram — validated on a pilot line

Fraunhofer ISE (Freiburg) reported on 9 September 2026 pouch cells with electrode coatings up to 800 µm thick, against the industry standard of 100–200 µm. Fewer current-collector layers per cell means less inactive weight: 10–15% higher gravimetric energy density at the same cell weight. The coatings are PFAS-free and solvent-free, and the cells were built on a semi-automated line using standard industrial processes — not a bench experiment.

The result was demonstrated across three chemistries: lithium-ion, sodium-ion and zinc-ion. That is the part that matters: the gain comes from cell architecture, not from a new material, so it transfers to the chemistries Europe is betting on to reduce lithium and cobalt dependency.

TRL 4–5 — validated in a lab and on a pilot production line, multiple chemistries. Source: Fraunhofer ISE press release no. 25/2026.

Why it matters for the EU agenda: the ECHA PFAS restriction is coming for fluorinated binders (PVDF); the Battery Regulation adds carbon-footprint and recycled-content rules from 2027; the Critical Raw Materials Act pushes sodium-ion. One result, three policies.

→ For you as a founder
  1. PFAS-free binder and coating supply. Every European gigafactory will need a replacement for PVDF within the restriction window.
  2. Sodium-ion stationary storage. A 10–15% density gain closes part of the gap with lithium for grid applications.
  3. EIC Accelerator 2026 challenge on renewable-energy materials funds exactly this category. Fraunhofer ISE licenses and does contract R&D — a consortium partner, not a competitor.
Source: Fraunhofer ISE, press release 25/2026, 9 Sept 2026
⬤ Immediate impact
05 // ECOSYSTEM RADAR Three doors open in October–November
Event
Slush 2026 — Helsinki, 18–19 November
Startup ticket €395 (incl. VAT), investor €1,195, day-2-only €595. Startups complete a short application before buying — no published cut-off, but the ecosystem tier is already sold out. Why now: the last large investor-density event before the EU Inc. trilogue; the Nordic investors there lobbied for the 28th regime. Closer and cheaper in the region: How to Web, Bucharest, 6–8 October, early-bird still open.
slush.org · howtoweb.co
Hub
ESA BIC Northern Germany — deadline 11 October 2026
€60,000 non-dilutive, two-year incubation across Bremen, Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Company ≤5 years old (≤3 in Schleswig-Holstein), product with a space connection — upstream or downstream data — and a German work permit. For scale-ups in defence tech: EIC STEP Scale Up – Defence, deadline 28 October, up to €30M direct equity in rounds of €50M+.
aviaspace-bremen.de · eic.ec.europa.eu
Community
EU-INC movement — 26,000+ co-signatories, "100 days" campaign
The coalition behind the 28th regime launched a "100 days" campaign on 3 September: lobby groups in the working party, it says, are trying to strip the central registry and the stock-option scheme. No Slack or Discord — you join by co-signing via LinkedIn at eu-inc.org; the supporters directory is the densest list of pro-EU-Inc investors there is.
eu-inc.org
Sources: slush.org · howtoweb.co · ESA BIC Northern Germany · EIC STEP Scale Up – Defence · eu-inc.org
⬤ Immediate impact
06 // FOUNDER ACTIONS — BASED ON WHERE YOU ARE Seven actions. Segmented by your situation.
→ Everyone
01
By 30 September: co-sign the EU-INC "100 days" letter (Section 05) if the central registry and the stock-option scheme matter to you. Two minutes on LinkedIn; the working party meets again on 29 September.Immediate
02
By 15 October: re-read your shareholders' agreement for any clause that assumes a future "EU Inc." conversion. If it exists, add a sunset — the form will not be operational before 2028.Likely later
→ If you are raising capital
03
Before your next term sheet: drop "EU Inc. will let us IPO from one entity" from the deck. Repasi's draft bans listing without prior conversion to a national form; ECON disagrees, but the risk is live. Pitch what the form reliably offers — cross-border incorporation and ESOP standardisation — not exit mechanics.Immediate
→ If you are expanding cross-border
04
By 31 October: if you run a branch in Germany or Austria with more than a handful of employees, price in the Presidency's optional model that forces large branches into subsidiaries. Ask your counsel for the threshold in the current German text.Forward signal
→ If you are applying for EU funding
05
By 1 October: have a lead partner and a state-aid regime (GBER Art. 20 vs de minimis) agreed for Euro-MED Call 8 — or drop it.Immediate
06
By 31 October: submit the EIC Accelerator short application — feedback in 4–6 weeks, so a March 2027 full application is realistic.Immediate
✗ Do not do yet
07
Do not incorporate a "holding-ready" SE or Dutch BV in anticipation of EU Inc. The connecting-factor rules for employee participation are unresolved; a structure optimised for today's text may be the wrong one in December.Likely later
⬤ Forward signal
07 // NEXT ISSUE — FOUR OPEN QUESTIONS What the October issue will have answers to
JURI votes the EU Inc. report (28 September or 8 October)The number to watch: does the listing ban survive the compromise amendments?
80%
Plenary first-reading vote on 19 OctoberSlips if JURI slips.
60%
Irish Presidency MFF negotiating box with figures — GAC 13 October, European Council 15 OctoberFirst test of whether the €234bn ECF core holds against the frugals' "several hundred billion" cut.
85%
Council general approach on EU Inc. before the November COMPETThe working party is still on the second compromise text.
35%

Next instrument: EIC STEP Scale-Up — the up-to-€30M-per-company equity instrument we promised in June, with the Defence call (28 October) as the live case.

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