Brussels: The 28th regime for innovative companies now has a Council position but no Parliament position, and that gap decides whether the bloc’s flagship start-up reform meets the end-2026 target set by EU leaders. Governments agreed their mandate on 23 October 2026, while the Parliament’s legal affairs committee has postponed the vote that would allow negotiations to begin.

The delay matters for founders, investors and national registries that have waited since March for a single company form valid across all 27 member states.

What the Council mandate changes

The Commission tabled the proposal on 18 March 2026 as COM(2026) 321, using Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union as its legal basis. It creates an optional corporate form, widely called EU Inc, that founders could set up digitally in about two working days for a fee of EUR 100. EU leaders asked for adoption by the end of 2026.

According to the process tracker run by campaigners for the 28th regime, which cites Council documents, the mandate narrows the text in several ways. Governments removed the insolvency chapter, which they regard as national territory. They limited the tax rule for employee stock options to companies with fewer than 750 employees and turnover of no more than EUR 150 million when the warrant is issued. They also added a power for member states to delay or refuse registration on money-laundering or terrorist-financing grounds, and a new article on wholly artificial arrangements.

The mandate sets application 21 months after entry into force. These details come from a secondary source, so readers should check them against the Council’s own documents once published.

Why worker participation blocks the Parliament

René Repasi, a German member of the Socialists and Democrats group, leads the file for the Committee on Legal Affairs. He published a draft report on 29 June 2026. The committee vote pencilled in for 8 October did not take place, and press reports say political groups have not agreed on employee participation.

The dispute is easy to describe. The Council keeps the registered office as the connecting factor for worker participation rights, with an optional mechanism for member states where branch headcount exceeds a threshold. Trade unions and several centre-left lawmakers want stronger guarantees so that founders cannot use the 28th regime to avoid national board-level representation. Business groups warn that heavier rules would erode the simplicity that makes the 28th regime attractive.

Two opinion committees have already reported. Aurore Lalucq’s economic affairs opinion passed on 15 July, and Johan Danielsson’s employment opinion passed on 10 September. The budget committee declined to give an opinion.

Can the 28th regime still meet its deadline?

The Irish Council presidency aimed to open trilogues in November 2026 and reach political agreement before the year ends. On the evidence available, the first target will be missed. The legal affairs committee lists its next meetings for 3, 7 and 10 December, and no plenary date has appeared on the procedure file since late October.

Without a Parliament mandate on the 28th regime, interinstitutional talks cannot start. A committee vote in early December followed by a plenary confirmation would push the first trilogue into 2027, which would leave the incoming presidency to finish the work. That would break the end-2026 commitment, although the political cost may be modest if the final text arrives in the first half of next year.

What happens next

Three markers will show whether the 28th regime recovers momentum: a new date for the committee vote, a compromise on employee participation among the main political groups, and a trilogue calendar from the Irish presidency. A Council that has already cut insolvency and narrowed the tax rules will also expect Parliament to accept some limits.

For start-ups, the practical advice is to treat 2026 as a negotiating year for the 28th regime, not a launch year. Even after adoption, the Council text points to a gap of almost two years before the 28th regime applies, so founders still need national structures for the time being.