Vilnius: A founder in the Baltic tech scene who wants to sell across the Union still runs into twenty-seven versions of company law, and the Commission’s proposed 28th regime aims to end that maze. The optional framework would give innovative startups and scaleups one EU-wide set of corporate rules that runs in parallel with national law, so a firm can incorporate once and operate everywhere without rebuilding its legal structure in each market it enters.

The pitch is blunt about the problem it targets. European founders routinely complain that fragmentation raises the cost of failure, slows fundraising and pushes ambitious companies to reincorporate in the United States. The proposed regime answers with promises of incorporation within days, simplified tax and legal obligations, and a single recognised European company form that investors can understand at a glance.

Money sits beside the legal fix. The Commission has committed to launch a Scaleup Europe Fund this year, structured as a privately managed, co-financed vehicle meant to crowd in the late-stage capital that European firms struggle to raise at home. Officials frame both measures as parts of a broader startup and scaleup strategy that carries the slogan of choosing Europe to start and grow.

Backers in the venture world have cheered the direction. They argue that a common corporate shell, combined with deeper pools of growth capital, could finally let a company scale from a garage in one member state to a listed business without the friction that competitors abroad never face. Startup lobby groups that campaigned for the idea treat the proposal as a hard-won win.

Sceptics urge caution. Company law, insolvency and taxation touch powerful national interests, and some governments guard them closely, so an optional EU layer could end up thin if member states water it down. Others question whether a new legal form solves the real bottleneck, which many founders say is the shortage of large domestic investors willing to write the biggest cheques.

The politics now move to the co-legislators. The Commission has asked the Parliament and the Council to agree on the package by the end of 2026, an ambitious deadline for a file that reaches into sensitive corners of national sovereignty. The full proposal and its supporting analysis sit on the Commission’s single market and industry service for scrutiny by lawmakers and business groups.

For founders in Vilnius and every other hub outside the big western capitals, the stakes are practical. A workable 28th regime would let them compete on ideas rather than on paperwork, while a diluted version would leave the same twenty-seven-way puzzle in place. The next eighteen months will show which outcome the Union chooses.