Ursula von der Leyen unveiled EU.Inc this week - a unified corporate structure that will allow businesses to register once and operate across all 27 EU member states under a single legal framework.
The initiative, announced at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, represents the most significant leap toward a genuine single market since the introduction of the euro. If implemented as proposed, it could finally deliver on the promise of borderless European business that has eluded Brussels for decades.
"For too long, European entrepreneurs have faced 27 different company registration systems, 27 different tax codes, 27 different regulatory requirements," von der Leyen said. "An American startup can operate seamlessly across 50 states. A European startup faces a bureaucratic nightmare. We're fixing that."
Under the EU.Inc framework, companies would register with a new European Companies Authority - a Brussels-based agency that would serve as a one-stop shop for incorporation, tax registration, and regulatory compliance. Once registered, an EU.Inc company could establish operations, hire employees, and conduct business in any member state without additional local registration requirements.
The structure borrows heavily from the American model, where companies incorporate in a single state (often Delaware) but operate nationally under a uniform commercial code. EU.Inc would create a similar "Delaware for Europe" - except the entire Union would recognize it.
For Brussels, the initiative addresses a painful competitive disadvantage. European tech startups routinely relocate to the United States citing easier market access and regulatory simplicity. London, Paris, and Berlin lose talent and capital to Silicon Valley not because American innovation is inherently superior, but because American bureaucracy is dramatically simpler.
"We have better universities, better infrastructure, better quality of life," a senior Commission official told me. "But we make it absurdly difficult to build a pan-European business. EU.Inc changes that calculation."
The proposal faces significant political hurdles. Member states jealously guard corporate taxation as a sovereign prerogative. Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands have built economies around attractive corporate tax structures - and won't surrender that competitive advantage easily.
Moreover, legal traditions differ dramatically across Europe. German corporate law emphasizes worker representation on boards. French law protects certain employee rights that don't exist elsewhere. Harmonizing these traditions into a single framework will require painful compromises that satisfy no one completely.
Von der Leyen acknowledges these challenges but argues the status quo is unsustainable. European companies cannot compete globally while navigating 27 different bureaucracies. The choice, she insists, is between a unified European corporate structure or continued dominance by American and Chinese giants.
"Right now, if you want to build the next Google or Alibaba in Europe, you're handicapped from day one," she said. "EU.Inc levels the playing field."
The initiative will require unanimous approval from member states - always a high bar in European politics. But Brussels is betting that mounting evidence of European economic stagnation relative to the U.S. and China will force reluctant capitals to act.
Implementation wouldn't begin until 2028 at the earliest, with full rollout potentially taking years beyond that. European institutional reform moves slowly. But if EU.Inc succeeds, it could transform the continent's economic geography - finally creating the seamless single market that the EU's founders envisioned seven decades ago.
"This is about survival," the Commission official said bluntly. "Either Europe builds companies that can compete globally, or European companies get acquired by American and Chinese buyers. EU.Inc is our last, best chance to change that trajectory."
Brussels decides more than you think - and this time, Brussels is deciding whether Europe remains economically relevant in the 21st century. The bureaucracy that built the single market now must fix it. EU.Inc is the test.
