Tallinn: In the Estonian capital that turned company registration into a matter of minutes, an idea long championed by founders is edging toward European law. The Commission wants to give firms a single rulebook, an optional EU-wide corporate framework that would let a business set up once and operate identically across all 27 member states.

Officials and entrepreneurs call it the 28th regime, or simply EU Inc, a legal shell that sits alongside national company law rather than replacing it. Under the plan sketched out by the Commission president at the start of the year, a firm could register digitally within roughly 48 hours and then run under the same conditions from Lisbon to Helsinki, escaping the patchwork that fragments the single market today.

The pitch speaks directly to scale-ups. A startup that wants to expand across borders now confronts 27 sets of incorporation rules, tax quirks and filing duties, a maze that favours American rivals who face one home market. A single rulebook promises to erase much of that friction and let promising companies grow at European rather than national speed.

The proposal belongs to a wider competitiveness drive. The Commission has paired it with a Savings and Investments Union meant to channel the estimated 10 trillion euros sitting in low-yield household deposits toward productive investment, and with a dedicated startup and scale-up strategy. The finance side of that agenda runs through the Savings and Investments Union framework launched last year.

Not everyone cheers. Some member states worry that an EU corporate form could let companies sidestep national protections on labour, tax or shareholder rights, and lawyers debate how a single rulebook would mesh with insolvency and employment law that stays firmly national. The Commission insists the regime would stay optional, a door firms may choose rather than a mandate.

The detail is where the fight will play out. Harmonising the core of company law, digital registration, governance and the treatment of shares, is one thing; leaving the rest to national systems risks creating a framework that looks unified but frays at the edges. Analysts at Bruegel and elsewhere warn that a half-built 28th regime could disappoint the very founders it courts.

Timing sharpens the stakes. With growth sluggish and investment lagging the United States and China, the bloc has cast competitiveness as the theme of the decade, and a single rulebook has become one of its most tangible symbols. The Commission argues that Europe cannot keep asking companies to think continentally while forcing them to incorporate locally.

For Tallinn, watching a version of its own digital-first philosophy move to the European stage, the promise is familiar and the caution earned. A single rulebook could unlock the borderless company that founders have wanted for years, provided the drafters resist the temptation to leave too much unfinished.