EU Plans EU Inc to Simplify Cross-Border Company Formation

Ireland’s EU Commissioner Michael McGrath has presented a proposal for a new EU-wide company form known as EU Inc. The initiative would allow businesses to incorporate and operate across all EU member states within 48 hours using a single, fully digital legal framework. The goal is to reduce legal fragmentation, lower entry costs, and make the EU a more attractive place for investment and venture capital, particularly for start-ups and scale-ups.

Under the proposal, companies could be established for under €100, with no minimum share capital requirement, and would rely on harmonized corporate rules and standard articles of association. Today, expanding across the EU can require compliance with up to 27 national company laws and around 60 different company forms, a complexity that has historically discouraged investors and pushed fast-growing European firms to relocate to the US.

EU Inc is specifically designed for innovative start-ups and scale-ups and includes a simplified insolvency procedure. For qualifying companies, insolvency could be completed within six months, without mandatory involvement of lawyers or insolvency practitioners. The intention is to lower the cost of failure and allow entrepreneurs to restart more quickly when a business model does not succeed.

The proposal does not affect national labor law, union law, or corporate tax rates, and it will not allow companies to select favorable tax regimes. Stock option frameworks would be harmonized in structure, though taxation would remain national. The regulation will be adopted through a qualified majority vote, without national vetoes, and aims to learn from the shortcomings of the earlier SE company form. The Commission expects EU Inc to support hundreds of thousands of new companies over the next decade and strengthen the EU single market.